Obama Announces Troop Withdrawal: But Be Patient

Mike & Friends Blog

Dan Rackley

Dan Rackley is a US Naval veteran living in Philadelphia and a contributor to "Will They Ever Trust Us Again?"

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June 23rd, 2011 1:01 PM

Obama Announces Troop Withdrawal: But Be Patient

When people want something, they want it now. They don’t want to wait, no matter how tough the logistics of an immediate solution would be. In his speech last night, President Obama announced the start of a gradual drawdown of troops starting this year and finishing up in 2014. In his speech he said that by 2014 every American soldier will be out of Afghanistan and the Afghan people will then be responsible for their own security.

This is something that has been a long time coming. Especially now with the death in May of Osama Bin Laden, the sentiment among many is what are we still doing there? We are pulling our men and women out of Iraq as we speak, and soon the Iraqis will be dictating their own fate. Which should have been happening a long time ago, but that’s beside the point. The Obama Administration has looked at every option and decided that the time is now. There is no reason for as many of our soldiers to be over there. I was part of a battle group that sent the first ground troops into Afghanistan in 2001. We have been there for ten years. That’s a long time and they need to be home as soon as possible. But watching the speech last night I couldn’t help seeing some people using social media to express the sentiment that they are upset that Obama isn’t going to have every American service member out of the region by the time this sentence is finished. Obama catches a lot of hell from everyone that’s upset that things aren’t being done fast enough. The economy, unemployment, bringing the troops home, etc.

But the thing people on either side of the fence don’t realize is that Barack Obama inherited almost as many problems as FDR did when he took office almost 80 years ago. He inherited the problem of an economy that was in the tank and two wars people did not want to be fighting. They rightfully want their sons and daughters home now. But it just can’t be done, and they should be a little more reasonable in their fervor. It’s gonna have to take some time. If we just shipped everybody home tomorrow and handed the Afghan people the keys and said, “you’re on your own” by the end of the year we would be back over there. Fixing some mess that came up. Then people would be upset that we pulled out too early.

I think like with Iraq, Germany and almost every other country in the civilized world; the United States will always have a presence. There will always be American feet on the ground. But the ones that absolutely do not need to be there, they will be coming home. It’s just going to take some time. I know they should all be home right now; but this appears to be the best possible solution for everyone involved. And you can’t slag on Obama too much over this. It’s not right to be upset for someone trying to clean up a mess someone else created.