Obama's War in Afghanistan

23:51

March 30, 2009

U.S. soldiers of 101st Airborne Division patrol in the outskirts of Bagram in north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, March 8, 2009. U.S President Barack Obama's last month ordered 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan to bolster the record 38,000 American forces already in the country. Obama has promised to increase the U.S. focus on Afghanistan and away from Iraq, as the U.S. begins to draw down its forces there.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) — U.S. soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division patrol in the outskirts of Bagram north of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday, March 8, 2009. President Barack Obama has ordered 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American forces already in the country. (AP)

The new president is sending 4,000 military trainers to Afghanistan, on top of the 17,000 additional combat troops headed there. With the 38,000 U.S. troops already in the country, that will be the highest number since the war began. Plus new billions for Pakistan.

All to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Queda,” he says. Will it work? The pressure is on.

This hour, On Point: Weighing the Obama plan for Afghanistan.

You can join the conversation. Are you with the president on this war? On the “Af-Pak” challenge? Do we have a choice?Guests:

Joining us from Kabul is Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, Afghanistan bureau chief for National Public Radio.
Joining us from Washington, D.C., is Christopher Preble, director of foreign policy studies at the CATO Institute and author of the new book “The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free” and 2004's “Exiting Iraq: How the U.S. Must End the Occupation and Renew the War against Al Qaeda."
And from Gig Harbor, Washington, is Thomas Donnelly, defense and security policy analyst at the American Enterprise Institut and author, with Frederick Kagan, of "Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power.” He was policy group director and staff member for the House Armed Services Committee and was deputy executive director of the Project for the New American Century from 1999 to 2002.

This program aired on March 30, 2009.