Anne+T.+--Afghan+War

Home Small Wars Project Perspectives on Afganistan Midterm Assignment Student Recommendations - Position Essays

TASK II: Write and Post a POSITION ESSAY to the wiki. Due Thursday, December 15th. Write an essay that advances a well-supported position on the question below and post it on: Student Recommendations wiki **How should the United States proceed in Afghanistan? ** Position Essay RUBRIC: A quality will essay will •open by setting up a context for the question--briefly explain why the unites States is fighting a war in Afghanistan, •develop a position or specific answer to the question that precisely states how the United States should proceed in Afghanistan, •use two criteria of the Just War Theory to analyze to what extent the U.S.'s involvement in Afghanistan is a Just War, •use three Perspectives to support your explanation of why our involvement in the war benefits or harms AFGHANIS, •use three different Perspectives to support your explanation of why the war benefits or harms AMERICANS, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px;">•draw supporting information from the articles studied in class which are posted on Moodle, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px;">•wrap up the essay by restating the key reasons why your position is the best way for the U.S. to proceed in Afghanistan. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px;">•organize your ideas in extended power paragraphs, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px;">•establish the credibility of sources, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px;">•cite sources internally and in a Works Cited, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px;">•edit language errors from writing, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px;">•post the essay on <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #800000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Student Recommendations

Annie Trexler Mrs. Sidor Afghanistan Task Two December 15th, 2011

How should the United States proceed in Afghanistan? The United States has been involved with Afghanistan since September 11th, 2001. On this day, a terrorist group called Al Qaeda unleashed a terror on the United States that will never be forgotten. The attack was organized by its leader, Bin Laden, who hi-jacked 4 Boeing 767 jet planes. The first two were flown into the north and south World Trade Centers in New York, Manhattan. The third plane was flown to Washington DC and into the Pentagon. The fourth and final plane did not reach its intended destination because it was taken over by the passengers who were being held hostage on it. Shortly after their revolt, the plane crashed into Shankville, Pennsylvania. There were no survivors. The devastating actions caused by Al Qaeda were reason enough for the United States to get involved. When members of Al Qaeda returned home, another Islamic extremist group, the Taliban, gave them safe haven in Afghanistan. When the U.S. invaded, they successfully took out Al Qaeda and removed the Taliban from their 5-year control over the country (New York Times Topics, Afghanistan). However, this didn’t diminish their terrorist activity all of the way. Our intentions for sticking around in the Middle East have been mainly for protection. The United States is protecting itself, and the innocent civilians of the Middle East who suffer from the effects of unhappy extremist groups. Recent talk of the United States’ involvement in Afghanistan has narrowed to a stay or leave situation. We both occupy Afghanistan and continue our leadership and protection over there, or we withdraw our troops in hopes that they will stay the way we left them and not go back to the state we found them in. My position on this debate is for the United States to stay in Afghanistan to protect our countries from future terrorist attacks, and keep them from harming others as well until they are able to accomplish this on their own.

The War in Afghanistan can most definitely be classified as a “just war.” It demonstrates both Jus ad Bellum and Jus in Bello criteria. Jus ad Bellum can be used to establish the right to go to war. Our occupation of Afghanistan is a great example of //right intention//. This is when a force should only be focused on correcting a wrong, and not for the gain of material or maintaining an economy. Our military was initially sent to safeguard attacks on American citizens. The Islamic extremist groups had attacked our country, and were threatening our safety. Therefore force was necessary. According to our widely like president, George Bush, his Bush Doctrine said that, “the United States would strike first at any potential security threats.”(ABC-Clio EBooks).

Another example of Jus as Bellum is //comparative justice// because to overcome the presumption against the use of force, the injustice suffered by one party must significantly outweigh the other. Lara Olsen, a researcher at the Center for military and strategic Studies at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, is more focused on the peace-making aspect of the war. In a paper she wrote on her humanitarian views, she quotes that “fifty percent of children in Afghanistan are malnourished” and “a fifth of children die before they reach age five” (Fighting for Humanitarian Space: NGOs in Afghanistan). Another issue is that the ratio of doctors to patients is one to six thousand; on top of this most of them don’t even know how to read or write. Olsen strongly urges that the U.S. keeps in mind these factors because it “offers a way of attempting to meet the enormous needs of the Afghan civilians equitably” (Corbin Dennis, Lara Olsen). In further research, there have been statements made saying that the United State’s withdraw from Afghanistan is harming the country rather than helping. “Earlier this year we reduced our financial aid to Afghanistan from 4 billion to 2 billion dollars (Arabella M, Ashraf Ghani, Chairman, Afghan Government Transition). By doing so, hundreds of small schools were closed leaving over 5,000 students with no school to attend. Afghanistan’s government transition chief, Ashraf Ghani is hoping for the U.S. to leave in an orderly fashion, but replace the military presence with an economic one. He insists that as long as the United States continues supports them economically, they will be able to “build up” and will be able to thrive on their own. However if the U.S. continues to cut spending in Afghanistan, the people living there will start to suffer more than they ever have. Overall, Afghan citizens are put through a great deal because not only is the war being fought in their backyard, but also their resources and sense of security are dwindling. They have much more at stake than the U.S. and we have taken that into consideration. We have limited air strike attacks on Afghanistan to lessen civilian casualties and are still coming up with more ways to fight this war more fairly.

The War in Afghanistan is both harmful and beneficial to America. A way it’s harming the U.S. is economically. In 2003, when President George W. Bush was in office, the spending on the war was at $14.7 Billion. Since then, Mr. Obama has taken office and spending on the war has skyrocketed. The amount of money the United States has spent on the war has reached an elevated $118.6 billion. When asked why he spent so much money on the war Obama said that it was done to “pursue what he termed America’s “war of necessity” (Afghanistan) and to withdraw from America’s “war of choice” (Iraq)” (Cooper, Cost of Wars a Rising Issue as Obama Weigh Troop Levels). Brian Katulis, a national security expert at the Center for American Progress, asked, “Do we really need to be spending $120 billion in a country with a G.D.P. that’s one-sixth that size? Most Americans would be shocked to know that we’re spending that kind of money for jobs programs for former Taliban, and would wonder where our jobs programs for Detroit and Cleveland are?” (Cooper, Cost of Wars a Rising Issue as Obama Weigh Troop Levels). Another way in which the war is harming the U.S. is in the amount of casualties there have been over the years. According to a regularly updated newspaper, the Washington Post, over "6,303 U.S. service members have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom" since the war commenced (Washington Post, Faces of the Fallen).

Sadly, the highest age group with deaths in the war was men and women between the ages of 18 and 19. Over 397 of them have passed so far and this is a terrible loss because they are part of our future generation to lead the country. Another statistic is that out of the total 6,303 deaths, 6,165 of these are men. Men who left loved ones behind and were sons, brothers, fathers, husbands, and friends. This is a major blow to the hearts of the families and friends of these men. They hadn’t seen them because of their prolonged presence in Afghanistan, and now all of the sudden they learn that they will never come back home. This is a feeling that no one should be forced to experience. However, on the Brightside, these men and women died for a good cause. They died while trying to protect their country from acts of terrorism. Our presence in Afghanistan has prevented several potential terrorist attacks. An example is in November 2011 American troops frequently raided Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.

This lead to the arrest of 600 former Baathists, a dangerous terrorist group with ties to Saddam Hussein’s old party (Kamber, Iraq). Everyday arrests (not as big) are made even in the United States. According to the Daily Beast, “records show that there have been at least 45 jihadist terrorist-attack plots against Americans since 9/11-thwarted by intelligence work, policing, and citizen involvement” (Avalon, Forty-Five Foiled Terror Plots Since 9/11). All of these attacks that have been avoided either in or out of the country can be credited to our service members. America could have undergone many situations like 9/11 if it weren’t for them; their presence in Afghanistan was indeed worth all their hard work and protected countless American lives.

With the army succeeding in stopping terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, America has been able to keep itself safe. By not having to worry as much of their own country being physically damaged, they have been able to focus on helping the innocent civilians of Afghanistan get away from the destruction and help them make their home a safer place to live. Since we have not found a way to completely stop terrorist activity, I believe that we should stay in Afghanistan until we are sure that they can stand on their own, and that we don’t have as large of a chance to be attacked.

A quality will essay will •open by setting up a context for the question--briefly explain why the unites States is fighting a war in Afghanistan, clearly done •develop a position or specific answer to the question that precisely states how the United States should proceed in Afghanistan, clearly done •use two criteria of the Just War Theory to analyze to what extent the U.S.'s involvement in Afghanistan is a Just War, clearly done •use three Perspectives to support your explanation of why our involvement in the war benefits or harms Afghanis, three perspectives referenced •use three different Perspectives to support your explanation of why the war benefits or harms Americans three perspectives referenced •draw supporting information from the articles studied in class which are posted on Moodle, some articles referenced •wrap up the essay by restating the key reasons why your position is the best way for the U.S. to proceed in Afghanistan. Focused summary made • organize your ideas in extended power paragraphs, competently done •establish the credibility of sources, most sources credited •cite sources internally and in a Works Cited, Internal citations have minor formatting errors; WC is incomplete •edit language errors from writing, minor spelling, grammar and other language usage errors •post the essay on Student Recommendations done

Works Cited:

https://buchholtzsidoramericanstudies.wikispaces.com/Report+on+NGOs--Lara+Olsen%2C

https://buchholtzsidoramericanstudies.wikispaces.com/Ashraf+Ghani%2C+Chairman%2C+Afghan+Government+Transition

https://buchholtzsidoramericanstudies.wikispaces.com/Ryan+Crocker%2C+U.+S.+Ambassador+to+Afghanistan

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[|http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/index.html]

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