Last night, President Obama spoke to the public about his plans for our troops and our actions in Afghanistan. His plans are angering both the right and the left, for different reasons. How the large middle of America reacts to the plan remains to be seen. One thing can't be argued - this should not be a surprise to anyone.

The gist of the plan is this: He will add more troops (both American, as well as a committment from our NATO allies) to help Afghanistan help itself. This has the left upset. He is also setting a timeline for withdrawl from the country. This has the right upset. The real question we should all be asking is: Will sending more troops accomplish the desired result in the time allotted?

That question has to be weighed against the results of the same approach that Bush took with Iraq. Did the surge (which I disapproved of) create conditions that are allowing us to withdrawl without leaving a power vacuum behind? Was this the one thing he got right? I don't have answers to these questions. I do know that we are on a timeline for getting our combat troops out, something President Obama promised he would do when he was campaigning.

Some on the left are saying he is just like Bush. I couldn't disagree more. Even though both are using a surge of troops, the similarities end there. When it comes to motivations, competence, compassion, and the ability to make difficult decisions without ego or politics playing a part, Obama is light-years ahead of Bush. I simply trust that he considered ALL the possible courses of actions and their likely outcomes, and chose the course - difficult as it might be - that would be the best balance of ends and means.

A funny thing happened when Obama won the presidency - everyone forgot what he said during the campaign. Every time he does something that upsets the left, you only need to go back to what he said on the campaign trail to see he is following through on a campaign promise. He said he would shift his focus (and troops) from Iraq to Afghanistan and we applauded, because we knew that Iraq was Bush and Cheney on a personal mission. Now that he is doing what he said he was going to do, we get upset. Did we all forget?

The other argument circulating on the left is that he will "break his promise" and stay longer than 18 months. One thing Obama has a pretty good record of is keeping his promises (even those we wish he wouldn't). He's made several promises about Afghanistan and he's well on his way to keeping most of them. Why anyone would think he would be doing this arbitrarily or make a promise he wasn't planning on keeping is ignorant of his history. He doesn't seem like a "best intentions" kind of guy; he seems to be unafraid of giving us the bad news, and unafraid of making demands of those who report to him to accomplish his goals. That's called "leadership"

None of this makes a troop surge in Afghanistan any easier to swallow. I know he rejected other plans brought to him that didn't include an exit strategy, so I certainly hope it's a realistic, balanced plan that doesn't rely on best-case scenarios. Somehow, I believe he's done a lot of pouring over the facts and projections, and we are only seeing the end result of those considerations.

In the end, the most important thing is that he is taking into consideration the lives of those soldiers gone and those that will be sacrificed for this mess, as well as their families. They deserve it. However, considering his track record on following through and making good on his words, I am cautiously hopeful that we finally have an end in sight for our military actions in Afghanistan.