After 10 years of fighting terror in the Middle East, President Obama begins his plan to withdraw more than 30,000 troops by the end of 2012.

Following the 9/11 attacks against the United States, then-President George Bush deployed over 1,300 soldiers to Afghanistan. Now, there are more than 100,000 troops who are fighting in Middle Eastern territory.

Obama, who promised during his presidential campaign to withdraw forces from the Middle East, actually deployed more than 30,000 surge soldiers to Afghanistan in 2009.

By withdrawing surge troops it would leave more than 70,000 soldiers behind in Afghanistan, which is more than what the United States started out with.

Dr. Thomas Holyoke, who teaches political science courses at Fresno State, believes it is time to end the 10-year war.

“This is a very difficult position that I think the president is finding himself in. This is because there is a great deal of pressure domestically, that is from a large portion of the American people, to bring this war and even more so the Iraq war to an end,” Holyoke said.

A lingering question remains if the Afghan Security Forces are actually capable of taking over what the U.S. has started.

“A tremendous effort has been made over the last couple of years to train both the Afghan Army and Afghan Police forces,” Holyoke said. “It’s not clear that the Afghan Army can really fight al-Qaida or the Taliban without U.S. support.”

Lt. Col. Scott Figlioli is a professor of military science at Fresno State. Figlioli has served in the U.S. Army for 17 years and was there for the Iraq invasion in 2003.

Figlioli believes there is an alternative way to train the Afghan forces.

“Counter insurgency is difficult. It’s a lot more to it than lethal operations,” Figlioli said. “There’s also the nonlethal things that we need to worry about as far as how to get the people working, how we install police force, how we get the army on its feet.”

Unit education training manager Luis Ramirez is on active duty in the U.S. Air Force as well as a student at Fresno State. Ramirez has served for six years in multiple countries. Ramirez agrees that it is time to start sending troops back and allow the Afghan forces to take over.

“At some point we need to allow them to build their infrastructure,” Ramirez said. “I do think we did a good thing by going in. However, it’s been very long.”

During the Iraq invasion Ramirez recalls seeing hundreds of soldiers being sent out from his base and hundreds more of casualties being sent back.

“The Afghanistan will not be solved by the military. It’s not the military solution we need. We need a political solution in Afghanistan,” Holyoke said.

U.S. forces continue to capture and kill top Afghan leaders even after the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Still, al-Qaida forces are executing attacks against numerous countries and U.S. military in Afghanistan. The question arises of does that mean they are able to adapt and improvise even quicker without these important leaders?

“We may have took out their camps and all, but in a way I think we made them better because now they have to become smarter and more discreet in what they’re doing.” Ramirez said.

“What we want is the country we’re supporting to take the lead and that’s what you’re seeing in Afghanistan.” Figlioli added.