Commentary by USMilitary.com Staff
Congress is toying with the idea of adding more troops to Afghanistan which was invaded by the United States nearly 16 years ago. Many, including the Army General in charge of the efforts have said the U.S. isn’t winning and it’s a stalemate.
The Trump administration is searching for answers and wants to find a way to achieve the goal of the Obama administration, which included getting an Afghan government in place that can actually defend itself from the extremists trying to set up in their country. Soon, there will be a revised strategy in front of Congress and a consultation with NATO allies before it’s finalized.
Is it Just a Waste?
This 16-year war has been called a waste by some since the military has been built from scratch and has included plenty of corruption and subsequent bombing in Afghanistan. Even paying for things, such as uniforms and salaries seems like it’s a waste in this area of the world right now. Over the past 3 years, The Pentagon has spent more than a billion dollars to help recruit and train Afghan soldiers. Some believe, this is a huge lesson in wasted funding and mistakes made by the United States have led to wasting funding that could have been used for other things.
Find your local military recruiter!
More than $66 billion have been spent on just the security forces for Afghanistan since 2002. The goal of President Obama was to wean the Afghans off of U.S. Military help, but ever since this goal was put in place, the budget has just continued to increase. Even President Trump is asking for a higher budget in 2018 than it was in 2017.
Currently, the United States has about 8,400 troops in the area to train and advise Afghans. They are also there to help hunt down extremist groups. More troops are expected to arrive this summer and as many as 4,000 more may be sent over. Some believe the added troops will be enough to help address the lack of needed troops for training and advising. Some of the new troops would also be there to help fight against al-Qaida and extremist groups.