Amy Tausch watched intently as the President Obama addressed the nation with his plan for Afghanistan. Her brother, LTC Jim Lecher, is there now after serving three tours in Iraq. He has also been in combat zones in Bosnia and Somalia.

Amy says she is encouraged by the president's call for 30,000 more troops in an attempt to bring the Afghan conflict to an end.

"As a military family, no one's excited to have their loved one off at war in harms way,” Amy said. “Based on the experience of what our brother has shared with our family we know that there's been success in Iraq in building up that country so I'm very optimistic that they can do the same thing if they're allowed to do so with the ways that they're trained to do."

With Obama putting emphasis on training Afghan security forces, Amy believes that is something that may directly involve her brother.

"I don't know the specifics of what exactly he's doing, but I know his experiences in Iraq two years ago were building up the security forces there, specifically in Ramadi, and it was a great success,” she said. “It was a city that was out of control and they built it up and it is still a secure city to this day."

As far as the president saying he would like to begin bringing troops home from Afghanistan within 18 months, Amy isn't sure he should have announced those intentions.

"They have to be very constructive about it. We certainly don't want to alert the enemy to exact plans, but I think putting a construction timetable together helps people feel at ease too that things are being done, that there's a plan in place and things are under control."

Amy said she liked that the president said Afghanistan is not another Vietnam. She says people seem to forget that we were attacked eight years ago and those attacking us trained for their mission in Afghanistan.

Department of Defense