Afghan Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Afghan Strategy - Essay Example Accordingly, for the majority of Afghan society over the past hundred years, life has been â€Å"nasty, brutish and short† (Hobbs, 1994). Poverty is endemic and life expectancy in this Central Asian country is only 45 years, according to the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA, 2009). Barack Obama, newly anointed President of the United States of America, has entered into the fray with a completely new and novel approach to the problems afflicting Afghanistan. The new American policy approach includes the deployment of 17,000 additional soldiers in an attempt to stabilize country. Attempting to quell the return of the Taliban, more American troops are being deployed to the south where violence is endemic. Focusing on the joint tasks of stabilizing the country and reinvesting in reconstruction, the new regime in Washington is doing its best to make a break with the past and refocus on energies on uprooting the Taliban and stabilizing the country once and for all. According to David Loyn of the British Broadcasting Corporation, â€Å"the political system that is emerging in Afghanistan may not have the most rigorous democratic standards, but the Bush years of believing that countries could be fixed by imposing a voting system from outside are over.† (Loyn, 2 009) President Barack Obama is working with his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, to dramatically improve security in the country, as well as in the region (Armstrong & Rubin, 2003). Does the new policy approach enhance the national interests and security of the nations most involved in the outcome in Afghanistan? The United States, under President Obama, is taking a much more proactive role in Afghanistan understanding that instability in this country has global ramification. Arguing that the "the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan demands urgent attention" (Gallacher 2009), President Obama understands