Afghanistan a top challenge facing Obama

Afghanistan will be one of the toughest complication facing Obama during his presidency. The next president will have to confront the Taliban, a terrorist group that before controlled Afghanistan. President-elect Barck Obama will need to come up with a new strategy for a victory in this war.

On his July 2008 trip to the Central Asian nation, where over 30,000 U.S. troops are serving, Obama called the country the "central front" in the war on terror. He suggested a large redeployment from the troops in Iraq to Afghanistan.

NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, has requested up to 20,000 additional U.S. troops for the war. Some have compared this request to the "Surge" in Iraq. The important element of the "Surge" was to increase U.S. presence and to work closely with tribal groups in an attempt to provide security.

What I would like to see, and, I think, what everybody would like to see, is the most rapid possible further expansion of the Afghan military forces because this needs to be an Afghan war, not an American war and not a NATO war," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Oct. 31.

For the troops on the ground they are already realizing the challenges that face them.

"We're still very much at the beginning phases here," said Capt. Matt O'Donnell, Company Commander with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, who mentors and trains the Afghan National Police in southern Helmand Province.

In listing local Afghans is another concern.

"I think we're right there on the turning point, where there's a lot of them but there's not enough," Lt. Clint Harris, serving in Afghanistan with 1st Battalion, 6th Marines says of the Afghan forces. "Once we get over that tipping point, more and more are going to join. And then we can turn the security over to them."

When Obama is sworn in he will be the first president to face the problems of two wars on two fronts. Afghanistan is definitely the more volatile of the two however if the if the Afghan people continue to support the American-led effort there winning this war will be very possible.

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