Barack Obama's Highlights and Lowlights in Afghanistan
Because of different views, some of these topics may be viewed as either highlights or lowlights to different people.
In January of 2009, the first wave of a large increase of troops in Afghanistan began. This wave brought in around 3,000 soldiers from various military branches. Then in February, 17,000 more were announced as being sent over in two brigades, but in December, Obama announced that 30,000 more would be put in.
On June 25, 2009, American officials announced that Operation Khanjar had been put into action. This was launched shortly after the British Operation Panther's Claw. It is called the Marines' biggest operation since the invasion of Fallujah in Iraq in 2004, with 4,000 Marine troops taking part. Taking place on the Helmand River, it's goals were to keep the civilians from the Taliban and to bring security to the area in time for their election.
In early 2010, there was another surge in troops, starting with 9,000 of the 30,000 meant to go in by the end of March. On top of that, 18,000 more were planned by June, making this the first time that there were more troops in Afghanistan than Iraq since 2003.
We can't talk about the Afghan War without bringing up bin Laden, can we? On May 2, 2011, it was announced that the Navy SEAL Team 6 accomplished Operation Neptune Spear and took out Osama bin Laden. The announcing of this news brought people to chant "USA!" outside the White House.
On June 22, 2011, was the massive withdrawal of troops. 10,000 troops were announced to leave by 2011, (which would leave about 80,000 still fighting) and 23,000 by the end of 2012. This led to other countries taking part to follow suit; Canada withdrew all troops, UK started to gradually withdraw troops without specific numbers or dates, France would withdraw around a fourth of their troops, among other countries.
And if we're going to say he's responsible for SEAL Team 6, we have to say he's also responsible for the (for lack of a better term) scum of the military. Through 2012, there were "a series of damaging incidents and disclosures involving American troops in Afghanistan" (The Sydney Morning Herald) going on. A few of the more notable ones are troops posing with corpses of Afghan troops, a helicopter crew singing "American Pie" before shooting a hellfire missile at a group of Afghan men, the 2012 Quran burning protests, and the Panjwai massacre.
I personally think that this is four definite highlights, one lowlight, (with the lowlight being fairly obvious) and one that could be either, while others would think it's four and two, three and three, etc. But you cannot connect all of the things that happen in a war to one leader; I wouldn't consider SEAL Team 6 or the "scum" soldiers as being directly due to Obama, but the surges in troops were good in my opinion, because they would end the war faster, and the withdrawal was a good idea, but it could wind up with more deaths because we won't reach a definitive end to the war.
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Comments
Well done!