WSIL-TV 3 ABC
Top Stories
Last updated 8:51 am CT February 09, 2010.
Local Reaction To Obama Troop Surge
Ask a soldier's family member what it was like the day their serviceman or woman returned home, and they will tell you it is inexplainable. Illinois National Guard troops returned to Marion, West Frankfort and Mount Vernon a few months ago, but President Obama's plan to send 34,000 more to southern Afghanistan has some local families uneasy.
Sarah Hill, of Johnston City, has a 23-year-old sister stationed in the Middle East. She left for combat a couple weeks ago.
"I thought he was going to try and get all the troops home, which kind of cheered me up when he became president," Hill said. "It just really confuses me that he is sending more over there."
Since operations began in Iraq and Afghanistan, 34 Illinois soldiers have died in combat. Several others have returned seriously wounded.
"We're there now, and a lot of people are dying there," Chris Hugh, of Carbondale, said.
Hugh says he is on the fence about sending more troops to the battlefield. He wonders if more soldiers will really make a difference.
"From our perspective, I don't think it will make much of a difference," Hugh said. "From a poor person the Taliban doesn't like, I think it will make a huge difference."
Government data shows each soldier will cost $1 million a year. That translates into a war that will cost American taxpayers at least $100 billion a year, on top of the money spent since 2001.
"That means my grandkids, your kids if you have them, are going to be paying for that a long time," said Bruce Chrisman of Carterville. "Probably their kids."
Still, families of local soldiers say they will support their troops if duty calls.
President Obama will make the formal announcement in a national televised address Tuesday evening. He expects the troop surge will work much like it did in Iraq. The hope is to ending the war and get soldiers home. The main target remains AL-Qaeda and it's leader Osama Bin Laden.
By: Jeff Stensland
jstensland@wsiltv.com
Now: 1265727567
