Primary Source News: Obama announces troop drawdown in Afghanistan

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Obama announces troop drawdown in Afghanistan

Citing recent victories against Al-Qaeda and a "position of strength" enjoyed by US forces in Afghanistan, US President Barack Obama announced that beginning in July, troops would begin withdrawing from Afghanistan.

He said that 10,000 US troops would leave Afghanistan by the end of this year, and 33,000 by the end of next summer, depleting Obama's 2009 "surge." Troops would continue to leave Afghanistan "steadily" until the completed transition to Afghan security forces would be complete by 2014.

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Mission Statement

In historical scholarship, a primary source is a document, sound recording, video recording, original work or other source of information that was created at or near the time being studied, often by the people being studied. In this sense primary does not mean superior. It refers to creation by the primary players, and is distinguished from a secondary source, which is a historical work, like a scholarly book or article, built up from primary sources.

Given that in the modern age we have vast amounts of information available, the question often arises, "What can we know for sure?" The Internet and information technology have made primary source materials more widely available than ever before, yet the presentation of the news is too often commentary with little substance.

The interviews, government documents, statements, art and images we are providing represents the raw data that is the news. A picture of the news that only examines primary sources is, of course, incomplete. But a picture that only involves debate and opinion may lose sight of what the story actually is.