As soon as we heard the president would announce the strategy and number of troops to be sent to Afghanistan from West Point, we knew he had decided to follow the lead of the generals.

Army generals are imbued from their earliest days in the Corps with the goal of winning battles and wars. They study strategies, tactics and the history of warfare at war colleges. Withdrawal, losing and defeat are not words in their vocabulary.

Presidents since Abraham Lincoln, commanders-in-chief who have served in wartime, have sometimes replaced generals while at other times relied completely on their performance and advice. As the Civil War’s bloody battles unfolded, Lincoln replaced Generals McDowell, McClellan, Burnside, Hooker and Meade before he finally found in Ulysses S. Grant the general who could lead the Union troops to victory. Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Dwight D. Eisenhower as supreme commander of the European Theater of Operations in World War II. We now know that Eisenhower made a

monumental blunder when he did not allow Lt. General Jacob Devers and the Sixth Army to cross the Rhine on November 24, l944. The Seventh Army would also have crossed the Rhine north of Strasbourg and the two

north of Strasbourg and the two armies would have caught the German First Army from behind. Then, Patton’s Third Army that had been blocked by the Germans would have driven into Germany and the war could have ended quickly. Instead, the Germans had the chance to counterattack three weeks later in the Battle of the Bulge, costing 80,000 Americans dead and wounded.

President Harry S. Truman was defied by General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War, when MacArthur wanted to move deeper into North Korea to confront the Chinese Communist Army. He made this plan public and the president relieved the revered World War II hero of his command, sending shock waves through the country. In 196l, John F. Kennedy weighed sending combat troops into Viet Nam in his first months in office. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretaries of Defense and State all supported sending the troops. Kennedy finally decided to restrict the United States military role to advisory missions. However, his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, relied heavily on General William Westmoreland, the commander in Viet Nam, whose reports led to the on-going escalation of American forces.

President George W. Bush decided to invade Afghanistan in October, 2001, after declaring the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks as a “War on Terrorism.” When he invaded Iraq in March, 2003, he drew upon Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s new strategy of a lean military attack force. Bush set aside the advice of General Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, who wanted to follow Colin Powell’s doctrine of “overwhelming superior force” to confront the enemy in an invasion.

On August 31, 2009 General Stanley McChrystal, American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, sent his request for additional troops to the Pentagon. He offered several options on numbers and goals. President Obama began meeting with his “war council” on September 13 and began a deliberative process to consider the strategy, goals and possible escalation of troops. When General McChrystal spoke publicly in London about his requests, he broke with Army protocol bringing a rebuke from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. As the participants at the ten war council meetings debated and discussed opposing points of view though October and November, Republican critics, including former Vice President Cheney accused the president of “dithering” and avoiding making a clear cut decision. The American people in all opinion polls were against sending more troops. After eight long years, over 50 percent favored a withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

Vice President Biden, who was against the troop build-up in March, remained committed to a strategy that focused on destroying al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan as well as in Afghanistan. He argued for the use of missile strikes and CIA drone aircraft that have been successful in killing Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders in both countries. Colin Powell, John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, General James Jones, the national security adviser and Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff, all expressed doubts to President Obama about adding forces in Afghanistan. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leaned toward sending additional troops.

President Hamid Karzai’s government has been tainted with widespread corruption for years. When the Afghanistan election ended with charges of rampant fraud and vote tampering, the overall situation became even more tenuous. The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, retired Lt. General Karl Eikenberry, who once served as the top military commander there, sent two classified cables to the president expressing strong reservations about sending additional troops. He was in direct opposition to General McChrystal’s request for up to 40,000 more military personnel. Eikenberry stressed the instability in the country and President Karzai’s inability or unwillingness to end the corruption that permeates the government and the economy.

When President Obama addressed the nation on December 1, he had already spoken with Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France about adding troops to their NATO contingent. He had also ordered the deployment of l,000 Marines to Afghanistan in the weeks ahead as the first of the 30,000 men and women who would be directly affected by his momentous decision. President Obama relied heavily upon the advice of the generals in Afghanistan and the Pentagon when he crafted his goals and strategy to “bring this war to a successful conclusion.” He committed the troops and national resources to support them in the years ahead. In his speech to the American people and to the world, President Obama said, “I am convinced that our security is at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” which he called “the epicenter of the violent extremism practiced by al-Qaeda. This is no idle danger. No hypothetical threat.” Only time and history will judge the wisdom of his decision - for the country and for his presidency.

Joyce S. Anderson is the author of “Courage in High Heels,” “Flaw in the Tapestry,” “If Winter Comes” and “The Mermaids Singing.” She can be reached at JSAWrite@aol.com.