President Obama's plan for increasing troops in Afghanistan is in the United States' best interest.

My partner and I negate the resolution resolved: President Obama's plan for increasing troops in Afghanistan is in the United States' best interest. We define "best interest" as an activity consistent with guidelines established in the preamble to the U.S. Constitution. We specifically make reference to providing for the common defense, domestic tranquility and promoting the general Welfare for purposes of this resolution. Contention 1: The Afghan army is incompetent and the training them will be near impossible. President Obama may or may not realize that Generals Petraeus and McChrystal cannot fix Afghanistan. They cannot stabilize or control it. What Petraeus and McChrystal can do is further entangle the United States, its resources and its forces in an unending war inside the ungovernable wasteland that lies between Iran and India. According to Time Magazine, the centerpiece of Obama's exit strategy is the training of Afghan security forces to take responsibility for fighting the Taliban. Although the U.S. has officially trained 94,000 Afghan soldiers, there's no signs of an effective Afghan security force capable of fighting the Taliban. Desertion rates are high; an estimated 1 in 4 soldiers trained last year deserted the army. Unlike other Middle Eastern countries, Afghanistan did not have a powerful army or strong state before the U.S. went in nor does it have the oil wealth to pay for its own armed forces. There's also the question of whether they'll be willing to fight the Taliban on behalf of a foreign-backed government. The Sunday Times reports that at any given moment, 20% to 30% of Afghani soldiers are absent without leave. Illiteracy is also high 70% of inventory receipts are signed with a thumbprint. This breeds corruption because a soldier who cannot read has no idea what he has just confirmed receipt of. The $120 paid to the lowest ranks in the army means the force attracts those who have no other possibilities and need the three meals a day that come with the job; such desperate folk rarely feel guilty demanding bribes. Meanwhile, Taliban pay is reported to be anywhere from $250 to $350 a month. Corruption is rife, and many police are addicted to drugs. There is some evidence that Hamid Karzai, the president inaugurated in 2009 amid allegations of fraud in the election and corruption in his government. Contention 2- Increasing troops in Afghanistan will distract the president from more pressing domestic and foreign policy needs. According to Stephen M. Walt professor at Harvard University, "Obama will have to devote a lot of time, a lot of time, attention, and political capital to the war in Afghanistan, an impoverished land locked country of modest strategic importance. So in addition to the human and financial cost of the decision to escalate in Afghanistan, throw in the opportunity costs. There are only 24 hours in a day and seven days in a week, and a lot of important issues are going to get less attention than they deserve." According to David Rothkopf, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, "Afghanistan is a costly distraction for the president, and the military. Every minute the president is focused on Afghanistan and every dollar we spend there is a withdraw from some other account, some higher priority." Rothkopf lists nine priorities that are more important than Afghanistan in the Middle East alone, including: dependence on oil, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction between Pakistan and India, the likelihood of a regional arms race, the growing influence of Muslim extremism is countries from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, the loss of influence of Russia and China in the region, deterioration of the Israeli--Palestinian situation, failure of the American Experiment in Iraq, and consequences of economic failures in the Gulf. Not only that but sending 30,000 additional troops into Afghanistan will cost many lives as well as close to an addition 10 billion dollars a year.