Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a hold over from the Bush Administration, has recommended a sharp increase -- 17,000 new troops -- in our military presence in Afghanistan.

While President Obama has been a staunch opponent of the war in Iraq, he has approved Gates' plan to increase our military presence in Afghanistan, which has the potential to become a new quagmire in the Middle East.

Sec. Gates and President Obama announced the plan to deploy an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan - that's a 50 percent increase -- despite the fact that the Department of Defense has not yet completed its research on the situation in Afghanistan, nor its long term strategy for the conflict, including an eventual exit strategy.

In response to the announcement of the troop deployment, Senator Russ Feingold said, "we need to make sure we have a strategy in place for Afghanistan that will actually work before we commit thousands more U.S. troops. A military escalation without a strategy to address the complex problems facing Afghanistan and the region could alienate the Afghan people and make it much more difficult to achieve our top national security goal of defeating al Qaeda."

With an economy in crisis and our soliders' lives on the line, we need a long-term strategy for Afghanistan before we send in more troops.

Sign this petition today to tell Defense Secretary Robert Gates that we need a long-term strategy for Afghanistan, including an exit strategy, before we embark on another military escalation in the Middle East.

https://act.credoaction.com/campaign/afghanistan_gates/index.html?r...