Opinion - Two ideas to bring the troops home

The U.S. will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. President Barack Obama made the announcement Tuesday.

Calling the country and its neighbor Pakistan the epicenter of Islamic extremism and a legitimate threat to the security of the United States, Obama outlined the “surge” of American troops to the area. The influx of troops will take place over the coming months and is expected to be completed by the summer of 2010. Then, according to the plan, troops will begin coming home in 2011, roughly ten years after they first arrived there.

For years, the conflict in Afghanistan has taken back sea...