Afghanistan Blog #9

Today there are many different opinions on Barack Obama’s foreign policy, especially towards Afghanistan, but your position on the subject is up to you. First some say that his policy is just more of the same of George Bushes old policies but that he is putting the success of Afghanistan ahead of success in Iraq. Others say that he is starting new ideas, putting new people in charge and taking a whole new approach to the current situation. I have to say that the most shocking things that I read was that the Obama administration has officially dropped their support for Hamid Karzai, the current president of Afghanistan, and that the Obama administration has been “paying-off” (bribing) Taliban militants so they wont fight the American soldiers. Toward the end of the Bush administration George Bush started to support Pakistan as a means of securing Afghanistan’s security, and it’s prosperity. This is why many people are accusing Obama of just following the policies of the former administration, and in that respect they are correct. In truth he is following what George Bush had done in his closing days, but Obama is putting many more restrictions on what the funds sent from the United States to Pakistan. Because George Bush had freely given funds to Pakistan they had built up their army on the border of India, instead of what they originally were given the funds for, securing the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is crucial to enable success in Afghanistan.