By Nikkaila Bain — JAMM Multicultural Journalism Workshop
President Obama announced this week 33,000 American troops will withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next summer. However, there are still uncertainties within the Moscow Community regarding America’s relationship with Middle Eastern Countries.
The president announced in a nationally televised address that he is calling for 10,000 troops to return to the United States by the end of this year, and 23,000 surge troops will return by September 2012.
“Thank God,” said D’Wayne Hodgin, 64, of Moscow, when describing his reaction toward the withdrawal. Hodgin, an Army veteran, served in Vietnam and Germany from 1967 to 1969.
He said serving in Vietnam changed his views on war.
“Before going to Vietnam, I was just a normal, young soldier who was willing to serve and fight,” Hodgin said. “After spending time in Vietnam, I became opposed to any war. The war in Afghanistan is no different.”
President Obama reached his decision to pull out troops after assessing whether his three main goals had been attained in Afghanistan. These goals included training Afghan security forces, dismantling the Taliban’s power, and denying Al Qaeda any harbor in Afghanistan.
Officials claim that recent terrorist threat has come from Pakistan, not Afghanistan.
Keely Emerine-Mix, 50, of Moscow, said she wishes for “a more aggressive drawdown” of troops, but thinks that America is on the right track. Emerine-Mix said she hopes President Obama is getting the support of both the Democratic Party and the GOP in his decisions.
“I wish [the withdrawal] had happened earlier and on a larger scale,” said Emerine-Mix, adding that America needed to focus more on Iraq from the beginning.
Raela Mink, 18; a freshman at the University of Idaho, knows the death toll of war. One of her cousins died in combat in Iraq.
“I definitely think that it has been a long drawn-out process,” Mink said. “We have been over there long enough and for all we know our efforts overseas could end up being a waste of time and people. But regardless, having several family members in the military has made this news a huge relief for my family.”
President Obama has also been under some scrutiny by bloggers and critics for not drawing troops fast enough; Mink has a different opinion on the scale of withdrawal.
“As long as it’s carried out; it wouldn’t really be realistic to withdraw 100 percent of all the troops at once,” Mink said.
Concerns still exist on whether the withdrawal will improve America’s relationships with Middle Eastern countries and terrorist forces.
“I think they will still have hard feelings against us no matter what,” Mink said. “We’ve been trying to help them for a long time with no real improvements and they wanted us out from the beginning.”
Emerine-Mix had different thoughts. “I believe the drawdown will help the United States focus more on mending relationships in the Middle East between countries and mending damage caused during previous administrations,” she said.
