I don’t think this question should be answered in this context, because it doesn’t matter what I think. I don’t have the right status to be taken seriously, nor am I confident in the credibility of the limited knowledge I have about the Afghanistan War. We need to ask our self,” Who has the most credible knowledge to fully (and hopefully honestly) answer this question?” The answer to that, in my opinion, would be the Afghani people and then the U.S. Military. And guess which voice has been kept quiet by the American media/Military? (I'm saying this on the basis of the war as I know it, of course... which isn't much). The Afghanis precisely. I wonder why. It is our militaries responsibility to be informed of the opinions of those being reformed. Either we can uphold this responsibility or we can be FASCISTS and force them to live the way we see fit, which would defeat the purpose of spreading world peace, I think.

After choosing very specific key words for the search engine I was using, I DID come across some opinions of a few Afghani citizens. An article was written in the L.A. Times by Mark Magnier, which illustrated what some of the Afghanis thought. In a nutshell… this is what the Afghanis said. They don’t want us to leave, because they are afraid of the Taliban getting stronger, but they want us to get smarter about what we’re doing. They think we should work more closely with Afghani police and military; to help boost the training and equipment for them so they won’t be so dependent on us for security. In fact, all they REALLY want is security. They aren’t worried about us setting

up “free elections” for them, partly because their leaders are STILL corrupt, free election or not. One Afghani, Wader Safi, said something very profound. He says,” If you pile more bricks onto an unstable house, the whole thing will collapse.” We are trying to build and promote all these things, but there are basic, fundamental cornerstones that this society needs before we can even consider to start “promoting democracy” or whatever. If we are going to stay in Afghanistan, we need to make it our top priority to promote security independence for the Afghani people. We need to stop bombing innocent people. We need to stop fighting in places where the Taliban aren’t even located. We need to drive out foreign militants who are using Afghanistan as a battle ground (that is, of course, saying that our decision to stay is concrete). Afghanistan has suffered thirty years of non stop war. I believe they deserve justice from outside forces.

Now this is all honky-dory… but before we can consider doing this, we need to ask, “Are we in a position to fulfill these wishes?” The answer to that would be “No”. There was an article written by Christopher Drew in the New York Times that elaborates on how much it would cost to send more troops to Afghanistan. If we were to send 40,000 more, (as recommended by Gen. McChrystal) the Afghan war effort would cost an estimated 40 to 54 billion dollars more a year, which would ultimately cost 1.57 billion dollars a year for the Afghan (or should I say Taliban?) war effort. Our national deficit is currently over 12 trillion dollars. I believe that we are not in a position to help anybody. We are barely standing on our own feet. I believe our money should go towards stimulating our own well being, not Afghanistan’s.

So taking all this into consideration, I think we should pull out as soon as possible. We need to address the problems in America before we counter Afghanistan’s. We need to be in a position of helping others. But the minute we do have the funds, I would gladly support sending troops to help secure less fortunate countries.

I say no because we've already sent enough troops there, my cousin is over there and im worried sick

i would be yes if we had the money to stage an other "war on terror" assault. but seeing we don't, it would again be an other economic suicide if we did send more, not for the gun companies of course, but for the average person who most of us are. i am a bit confused, you said AL Qaeda is willing to negotiate? they are a terrorist group, and even if they were willing, i would not talk to them. so what if bin laden could of been handed over, an other would take his place. the only time i see any reason to negotiate with terrorist is if American lives or property is at stake. as for us trying to stabilize peace in Afghan so the terrorist groups are annihilated, it isn't all that effective if the foreign helper does all the calls. the Afghans need to be encouraged and reminded change will only happen when they do something. we need more schools then outpost, more hospitals then ammo depots in Afghan, as said by a former activist and enlightened person in the 18 century, ignorance governs the simple, and knowledge governs the ignorance. a lot of the people live in a medieval state of mind you could say, they don't know more then what the local militant groups tell them or the promises UN soldiers tell them.

30,000 MORE troops... R U KIDDING!!! that is 30,000 families left without a mother, father, brother, sister, grandparent, or other relative.. NOTHING CAN COMPARE TO THE LOOK IN A MOTHER'S EYES WEN SHE IS SAYING GOODBYE TO HER HUSBAND FOR GOD KNOWS HOW LONG OR IF SHE WILL EVER SEE HIM AGAIN Bring these troops home

It is a waste the Government sends troups there only for militaristic in the middle east, no other reason. They do not care about freeing the Islamic people. They only wish to establish a military base in that part of the world.

It is now 2015 and the troops are still over there. Bring them home!