Utah soldiers watching Obama on wars

Sgt. Michael Green wants President-elect Barack Obama to focus on human intelligence in Afghanistan, taking the needed time and tapping into the right military talent pool to dig for information from Afghani locals on where the "bad guys" are before sending in more troops to use force.

Green, 25, served with the Utah National Guard in Afghanistan from September 2003 to May 2004, with the 19th Special Forces Group. His job was to find the so-called bad guys.

"I'm not sure what is going to happen with the new administration coming in," said Green, now a student at Utah State University. "I don't know how much they'll support intelligence operations to find these guys."

Lt. Brent Taylor hopes Obama doesn't pull too many troops out of Iraq too soon. Taylor, 29, served nearly 16 months in Iraq with the Utah National Guard on a tour he voluntarily extended by about six months. He returned safely last month to his wife, Jennie, and their two children in North Ogden.

"We don't need to stay there 10 years longer," Taylor said Wednesday. "I would think less than three years, for sure."

Green and Taylor are representative of the balancing act Obama will face as he decides how to move forward in Iraq and Afghanistan, each with mounting death tolls. Today, Obama plans to begin receiving daily top-secret intelligence briefings.

But Iraqi officials don't expect Obama to orchestrate a hasty withdrawal from Iraq, The Associated Press reported Wednesday. The officials anticipate Obama will make good on his word to consult with U.S. commanders and Iraqi officials on the ground in Iraq before making a decision on a war that is costing U.S. taxpayers $12 billion a month.

The latest Defense Department figures show that the Iraq war so far has resulted in 4,190 U.S. military deaths since 2003, while the Afghanistan war has claimed the lives of 626 U.S. service members since 2001. At least 48 people with Utah ties have died while serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, according to Deseret News records.

While the U.S. economy was chiefly on the minds of most voters Tuesday, polls showed that some people made their choice based on the candidates' strategy for Iraq and Afghanistan.