About 35 individuals congregated in the Humanities building Tuesday to discuss President Obama's speech on his strategy in Afghanistan. Buzz Davis, a member of Wisconsin Impeachment and the Bring Our Troops Home Coalition, led the discussion.
Obama outlined an exit strategy for Afghanistan in a speech at West Point Military Academy in front of 4,000 cadets. He said the strategy includes a troop surge in 2010 and ends with troop withdrawal beginning in July 2011.
""These are the three core elements of our strategy: a military effort to create the conditions for a transition, a civilian surge that reinforces positive action and an effective partnership with Pakistan,"" Obama said, stressing that he did not take this decision lightly.
He explained his hopes that U.S. allies will send additional troops to augment U.S. forces in the fight against the Taliban.
The vast majority of those who attended the meeting said they opposed Obama's announcement to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan beginning in 2010. A pamphlet distributed at the meeting called on those present to either ""fight escalation or accept it.""
Some expressed interest in organizing protests to promote their anti-war cause.
""I think a better direction would be for Obama to come out and say that this is not what our country is really about and we're going to stop waging wars in these countries that have resources that we want,"" attendee Kristine Pettersen said.
Most of the attendees said they shared Pettersen's sentiments, though two students present disagreed.
""All of [the attendees] were worried about important issues like the decline of unions in the U.S. and the controversy over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and chose to focus on imaginary and ridiculous ideas like impeaching Obama as a war criminal,"" UW-Madison freshman Gabriel Alpert said.
