As President Barack Obama prepares to announce his decision about whether to send several thousand more troops into Afghanistan, he will have both opposition and support from students at UH, as well as from the general public.
‘I’d like our troops (to) be as safe as possible, and that the casualties be (as) low as possible, but if it’s a necessity, I’m going to support (a troop increase) and support our troops no matter what,’ Jaime Herrmann, a pre-veterinary graduate student, said. ‘I would think that having more troops over there would probably protect not only our armed services, but also protect our homeland a little bit better too.’
But not everyone agrees that a buildup is the right way to go, and some feel that a withdrawal is a more appropriate response.
‘As far as my personal feelings on that, I don’t really like it,’ computer science senior Paul Sinski said. ‘I see us putting more troops in more countries, and it seems to be making more trouble for us because people don’t like us meddling in (their affairs). What’s to say if we weren’t there that (the Afghan insurgents) wouldn’t do things that helped us rather than hurt us?’
Adding to that fear is the sentiment that U.S. troops could be stuck in Afghanistan for several more years, which would lead to more casualties of troops and Afghan civilians
‘I think U.S. troops will be stuck in (Afghanistan) for a very long time because they will never be able to solve everything, as the whole (country) is not organized,’ geophysics graduate student Maisam Otoum said.
Even as the debate continues, military officials, including those at the Army ROTC Houston Battalion, are fully up for the challenge, and believe the cadets in training will be too.
‘What we do with (cadets) here is evaluate their potential to be able to lead soldiers in peacetime and in a war environment,’ Lt. Col. Kurt Robinson, head of UH ROTC, said.
Robinson said that after cadets graduate, most go into specialized schools, such as the Ranger School or an artillery school for additional training, adding that it would take eight to 10 months for a graduate to see active duty.
Since Sept. 11, many graduates from the ROTC have gone on to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to Robinson.
‘I would venture a vast majority have deployed once, if not twice, already,’ Robinson said.’ ‘So (there’s a) good chance that graduates from UH (will be deployed) if they do go into active duty, and even the reserves in the National Guard, as quite a few of those are deployed as well.’
Robinson also said that in some ways, the planned increase was analogous to the 2007 troop surge in Iraq, and he believes that similar success could be achieved in Afghanistan.
‘I would think it’s going to be that they have a specific mission and purpose for those buildup of troops, and then from there, once they meet their mission criteria, that will decrease (troop levels) again very similar to what happened in Iraq,’ Robinson said.
The planned buildup is the brainchild of Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who was appointed commander on the Afghanistan effort by Obama, and has been pushing for a significant increase in troops.
McChrystal said that to keep the current 68,000 troops and use more drone strikes, as Vice President Joe Biden suggested, would lead to more civilian casualties and a reason for more to join the Afghan insurgency.
According to The New York Times, McChrystal proposed several different options, including sending up to 85,000 more troops into Afghanistan.
