Amid Flagging Support for War, Obama Unveils New Afghan Strategy

The president announced this new strategy in a prime-time speech at the U.S. military academy in West Point, N.Y., eight years after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan to fight the extremist Taliban group that harbored terrorists responsible for the attacks of September 11. 
 
"Afghanistan is not lost, but for several years it has moved backwards," President Obama said in the speech.

Warning that the bigger war effort would cost $30 billion more this year, the president emphasized the importance of transferring responsibility for fighting al-Qaida extremists and their allies from U.S. troops to Afghan government forces.  
 
"It must be clear that Afghans will have to take responsibility for their security," President Obama said, "And that America has no interest in fighting an endless war in Afghanistan." 

Many Democrats oppose sending more troops

	Democratic Sen. Carl Levin thinks that the focus should be on increasing the number of Afghan troops instead of U.S. soldiers.

Some 68,000 soldiers are already fighting in Afghanistan and the question of whether to increase troop numbers has caused considerable debate within the Obama administration and his own party. 
 
With public support for the war waning, many Democrats have opposed any increase to troop numbers and have instead favored a quick withdrawal and immediate transfer of power to Afghan police forces.

And while many Republicans had favored increased troop presence in Afghanistan, Republican Sen. John McCain said he opposed a withdrawal date. “Dates for withdrawal are dictated by conditions. The way that you win wars is to break the enemy’s will, not to announce dates that you are leaving.”

In his speech, President Obama argued an "open-ended escalation of our war effort" would eliminate "any sense of urgency in working with the Afghan government." 

Obama's burden

	Many Americans no longer think that the Afghan war is worth the lost of money and soldiers.

A Gallup survey released this week showed that only 35 percent of Americans approved of President Obama's handling of the Afghan war while 55 percent disapproved.  
 
During the campaign, President Obama said that while he did not support the war in Iraq, he believed that the war in Afghanistan was worth fighting. 
 
The expensive and increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan, however, could prove to get in the way of his ambitious domestic agenda that includes reforming the country's health care, banking and education systems. 

Is Afghanistan another Vietnam 'Quagmire'?

	The Vietnam War resulted in the loss of 58,000 U.S. soldiers.

As the fighting drags on, some political analysts and members of the media have begun to call the war in Afghanistan "Obama's Vietnam," in reference to its difficulty and the possibility that U.S. military forces could be there for years to come. 
 
The Vietnam War, which began in the early 1960s and lasted until 1975, resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of U.S. troops and disillusioned many Americans who were used to winning wars.

President Obama rejected that comparison in his speech, saying it "depends on a false reading of history."

"To abandon this area now," the president said, "Would significantly hamper our ability to keep the pressure on al-Qaida and create an unacceptable risk of additional attacks on our homeland and our allies."