Obama's Big Plan for Afghanistan

A day after a congressional attache signed and sent a letter to President Obama requesting him to "reconsider military escalation" in Afghanistan, President Obama announced his plans to phase in an Afghan national security force of 400,000 in the next six to seven years. This amount is over three times more than the amount the American government planned for in 2002.

The New York Times reports that the Afghan security force curently stands around 90,000 and that last year President Bush approved $12 billion in funds to nearly double the force. President Obama appears poised to continue America's imperial presence in Afghanistan.

In addition, the Times also mentions that President Obama is near announcing a plan to spend $10 - 20 billion for operations in Afghanistan until 2016. If the United States has troops in Afghanistan until that year, it will go on record as a fifteen-year war, the longest in American history. The War in Afghanistan is now in its eighth year.