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Americans React To Afghan Troop Strategy

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

And I'm Melissa Block.

President Obama's decision to commit 30,000 more troops to the war in Afghanistan is one of the most important and controversial of his administration, and Americans have strong feelings about it. From across the country today, here's a small sampling.

Ms. LYNN GRAY(ph): I grew up in the military, and I don't think 30,000 is enough. If you're going to do it, do it or get out. But this little bleeding over 10 years is silly. I mean, it's just wasting people's lives.

Mr. MIKE REYNOLDS(ph): It's a little bit - it's about 90 days late. He should've acted a lot sooner when McChrystal asked for the troops sooner. I would've rather he'd give him the 40,000 he needed, but 30,000 is better than nothing.

Ms. KATIE RAGSDALE(ph): I'm just fed up with it. I have family who's in the service. And it's just - I don't know, I just think it's time to just walk away.

Mr. KEVIN THOMAS(ph): I'm strongly against it, sending more troops over there. There's got to be a better way to able to attack the terrorists. I don't see that it's feasible to send out another 30,000 troops and have them come back in body bags.

Ms. LUCY RIOS(ph): I think his plan's right on. My only issue is that he waited three months to do it. And I think it's a plan that could've came out in three weeks or four weeks. It'll be interesting to see if he can get that all done in the 18 months that he promised.

Mr. JOHN BISWELL(ph): We don't belong over there. He says it's only going to go on to be this long, but I think it's going to be longer than people think. And more soldiers are going to die for a reason I have yet to understand. I've already lost a nephew over there, and I really don't want to lose two sons over there.

Mr. VICKY SALAVITCH(ph): Go over there and do what you got to do. Come on back and then be done.

Mr. MICHAEL MACKEY(ph): I like Obama. I think he'll do good for the country because of who he is. And I think he can make peace with the whole world, but this is wrong. It's no different than Vietnam and people get to the point where they don't care no more. And I just think it's wrong.

BLOCK: That was Michael Mackey. He's in Rochester, New York. We also heard from Lynn Gray in Rochester, also, Katie Ragsdale in Los Angeles. And in Kansas City: Kevin Thomas, Lucy Rios, John Biswell, Vicky Salavitch and Mike Reynolds. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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