Obama Takes First Miliatry Action as President

President Obama took his first military action Friday, approving two missile attacks on terrorist targets in the tribal area along Pakistan's border, according to The Guardian. Reportedly, twenty two people were killed, with civilians among them. There have been 30 such missile attacks in the past year. The action is an affirmation that Obama will not shy away from the pursuance of high level Al Qaeda targets. Meanwhile, a separate U.S. operation that claimed the lives of fifteen armed militants has been painted by Hamid Karzai, Afghani President, as the killing of sixteen civilians. The loss of "civilian" lives has caused a wave of anti-U.S. sentiment, and has garnered much critcism. One critic said that the killing of civilians "is strengthening the terrorists".
Despite regional opposition, the Obama Administration has planned a doubling of the number of troops in Afghanistan from 30,000 to 60,000. As a result, they have told the publice to expect a rise in U.S. casualties in the area. The article also points out the political risk that the war effort poses to his new administration, were it to become as unpopular as the war in Iraq.