**I will be rewriting the story “Decision on Afghan Troop Levels Calculates Political and Military Interests”. I will be doing so with the goal of writing this story for a blog for families of military personal like The Heroes at Home, with goal of seeing the troops come home from Afghanistan. To do this I will highlight Mr. Obama’s current plan as a good step forward, but will suggest that it isn’t a fast enough transition. I will also make the story more focused on the people and less on politics, by talking about families, and the emotional toll of losing a loved one in war.**

President Obama’s administration officials released his decision to remove half of the 66,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan by 2014. This marks a crucial step towards withdrawing from Afghanistan, but to many families of soldiers in the Middle East it isn’t fast enough. Many believe we are in a war being fought over oil and other natural resources (article comments). Mr. Obama is expected to highlight this withdrawal in his State of the Union Address, and hopes to receive bipartisan support.

Vice President Biden has voiced a desire to pull out troops more quickly, but Mr. Obama has been known to favor a slower and more careful approach. Mr. Obama once called this war a “war of necessity”. Our goal was to stop Al Qaeda, and we succeeded. Now it’s time to bring the troops home.

This war has dealt a tremendous toll to the families of the soldiers. These men and women are out there fighting and dying, when they should be here; protecting our country, providing relief during natural disasters, and working to benefit themselves and their nation. Instead they volunteer to go overseas to protect a country that doesn’t even want them there. Too many wives have been left without husbands, kids without a father, and Mothers who have lost their children. More will follow if the proper actions are not taken.

Mr. Obama’s plan calls for gradual withdrawal over the next year. According to the White House’s withdrawal schedule, 5,500 troops will have left by May, by the end of November that number will be up to 14,000, and by the end of February 2014 the number of troops in Afghanistan should be around 32,000.

The decision for a slower withdrawal in the warmer months is appreciated by military officials. ”The intensity of combat in the warmer months is twice what it is in the colder months”, said military expert Michael E. O’Hanlon. Frederick Kagan, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, says that reducing the number of troops by half could reduce chances of the campaign’s success, but he says the flexibility of the schedule will lessen that risk.

Mr. Obama has also acknowledged some post 2014 concerns. He has stated that there are two main goals for the future in Afghanistan. “Training and equipping Afghan forces, so that the country does not again slip into chaos, and counterterrorism efforts that allow us to pursue the remnants of Al Qaeda and their affiliates”

Mr. Obama has been reluctant to discuss withdrawal after 2014, but he probably hasn’t thought a lot about it. The plan for the next year is a sufficient one and the president has more pressing matters to deal with. He is still working to try to find a solution to the looming debt crisis and the lockdown in Congress. There is still much that needs to be done if we are to pull out, but this plan is a necessary step along that pathway. One can only hope that a full withdrawal is in the future.

Sources-