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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

The United States went into Afghanistan after September 11th because it was evident that Osama bin Laden and his affiliated terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda were responsible for the attacks. Our government had the right intention entering this war with efforts of “correcting a suffered wrong” against our country and citizens and taking action against a group of terrorists that still posed a real threat against our countries security. Now that Osama bin Laden and other higher ranking Al-Qaeda members have been captured or killed, I believe the best course of action for the United States to take is to stabilize what we have de-stabilized and set Afghanistan on a positive course toward equal rights and fair elections for their people.

The war in Afghanistan has harmed Afghanis. The country is in turmoil because of this war. The author, reporter, and Afghani-American Fariba Nawa, believes that we should repair the damage we have done to the country then withdraw our troops.Fariba was born in Afghanistan but her family fled to America when the Soviet Union invaded her country October 31, 2979. She believes, "It's a bigger mess than it was before and if we hadn't gotten involved before, it would have been fine, but we've gotten involved. It was somewhat stable during the Taliban and now it's worse than it was as far as security is concerned."

According to Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, Afghanistan’s economy depends on financial aid. Karzai believes that the US should never leave Afghanistan because he does not believe that Afghanistan is strong enough militarily or economically to stand against the Taliban. Lara Olsen, a researcher at the Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, agrees with Fariba Nawa, the US should leave as soon as Afghanistan is stable. She wrote in one of her papers on Afghanistan, “Without an effective state, or much greater international military presence that can truly impose order on the whole country, preserving humanitarian space at least offers a way of attempting to meet the enormous needs of Afghan civilians equitably.”

The United States’ war in Afghanistan has been costly to the country in many ways especially during hard economic times since the original 9/11 attacks. In an article published in the New York Times, // Aid Agencies in Afghanistan Fear Reversals After U.S. Exit, // by Rod Nordland, “ Afghanistan’s economy is dependent on foreign aid, more than 90 percent of the $17.1 billion national comes from foreign donations” most of this money comes from the United States.

Ismail Salami, an Iranian writer, believes that the US should leave Afghanistan and focus on fixing our own economy. He writes, “The war has cost the US public purse billions of dollars which could have been used instead for empowering the American people and ameliorating the deplorable economic situation in the country.”

What is the solution going forward for this conflict? This war has been long and costly for both countries economically and on human life. Our soldiers fight to protect the law-abiding citizens of Afghanistan, to root out those terrorists who threaten the liberties of the citizens, and to stabilize a country in which corruption and power struggles among leaders are crippling the efforts of the people to move forward with their new government. In order for change to take hold, we need to continue to seek out and capture individuals in the country belonging to terrorists groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, create an exit plan for when the US and the Afghani government agree that the country has proper structures in place so that the government can stand on its own, and ensure that the people and the economy are able to independently support itself without extensive aid coming from other countries of influence.

Sources:

Nordland, Rod. "Aid Agencies in Afghanistan Fear Reversals After U.S. Exit."

//New York TImes//. New York times, 5 Dec. 2011. Web. 15 Dec. 2011.

<http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/n/rod_nordlan/index.html?inline=nyt-per>.

// The Future Of Women's Rights In Afghanistan //. NPR. 5 Dec. 2011. //NPR.org//. Web. Transcript. 8 Dec. 2011. < []

143141872?page=5>.

// Fariba Nawa //. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2011. < []

Salami, Ismail. “President Obama’s Cyclopean Perspective on Afghanistan War.” Editorial. //Veterans Today//. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2011. < [] ‌2011/‌10/‌09/‌president-obamas-cyclopean-perspective-on-afghanistan-war/>.

Salami, Ismail. “US War Rhetoric: Road to Sedition.” Editorial. //Veterans Today//. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2011.

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, a general reference made but not developed •use three Perspectives to support your explanation of why our involvement in the war benefits or harms Afghanis, perspectives referenced •use three different Perspectives to support your explanation of why the war benefits or harms Americans 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. summary clearly made • organize your ideas in extended power paragraphs, competently done •establish the credibility of sources, sources credited •cite sources internally and in a Works Cited, Internal citations Not done; web address should be truncated after .com in WC •edit language errors from writing, minor spelling, grammar and other language usage errors •post the essay on Student Recommendations done