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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? ** Did you know that if you google “What started the war in Afghanistan” you won’t find one common answer? You will find that after looking at the top few results that most of them are theories. Two answers do stand out, the first being that the United States entered Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in order to remove the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, preventing further attacks. Yet there is the other side of the story, saying that the war in Afghanistan would have started regardless of 9/11. These sources point out that the US invasion of Afghanistan went much to well to only be planned in three weeks. They also claim that the US entered for economic reasons, to secure a new, US controlled, source of oil for the market. What ever the cause, we are in Afghanistan. Looking at “How should the United Staes proceed in Afghanistan?” I think we are doing the right thing, but aren’t going as far as we should with it. According to the New York Times the current plan is to push Afghans into the lead role is the fight against terrorism in there country. The plan “emphasize deploying American and allied military trainers directly within Afghan security units, which could lessen the direct combat role of NATO and accelerate local forces’ taking the lead in a growing number of missions.” (NY Times) This is a step in the right direction but not enough. Afghanistan not only need to be less dependent on the US for military aid but also economic aid. A self supported economy would improve the standards of living amongst the population. This would help encourage locals to resists terrorist because they would not wish to give up there safety and improved lives.

When trying to decide if the war in Afghanistan is just or not, it is very much in the middle. If you look at right intension, are our intensions the right ones? According to the just war theory a right intension is correction a suffered wrong. In the case of removing Terrorist from power, the war is very much just. Although if we went there for economic gain (oil) then the war is not just according to the theory. Based on military necessity the war is just and conducted correctly. All attacks and actions have been for military gains or to protect civilians from attack. The US being Afghanistan has been beneficial for Afghanistan overall. According to the Afghanistan President, Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan can use all the help it can get. Without the US involvement the whole idea of a president wouldn’t have happened in the country. When the Taliban were in power it was a dictatorship, no one could freely voice there opinion. That has changed now and the next elections are scheduled for 2014. Education has also gone through a large change. Before the US invasion only boys went to school, now both boys and girls attend school regularly and new schools open every year expanding educational opportunities.

For the US the war in Afghanistan has not been as beneficial. The war costs the nation billions of tax payer dollars and with more and more of those tax payers no supporting the war, the government is faced with a problem of what is the best option. There is an upside, a stable Afghanistan would open new markets for US goods and a better source of oil.

In conclusion my ideas about how to contunue in Afghanistan would not cause us to lose the fight but at the same time reduce the already great cost, of money and lives.

__Work Cited:__ Martin, Patrick. "US Planned War in Afghanistan Long before September 11." World Socialist Web Site. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. <[|__http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/nov2001/afgh-n20.shtml__]>.

Rohde, David, and David E. Sanger. "How a ‘Good War’ in Afghanistan Went Bad - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 15 Dec. 2011. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. <[|__http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/world/asia/12afghan.html?pagewanted=all__]>.

Shanker, Tom. "U.S. Shift May Push Afghans Into Lead Role." New York Times. 3 Dec. 2001. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. <[|__http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/world/asia/us-plans-afghan-shift-to-lessen-nato-combat-role.html__]>.

M., Brooks. “Hamid Karzai-President of Afghanistan.” American Studies Wiki. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 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, 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, unsupported claim made •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. general summary made • organize your ideas in extended power paragraphs, attempted--make sure you always follow a citation with a sentence explaining why it gives your thesis authority •establish the credibility of sources, some sources credited •cite sources internally and in a Works Cited, done, internal citations have formatting errors; WC is mostly correct except you should truncate the web address after .com •edit language errors from writing, minor spelling, grammar and other language usage errors •post the essay on Student Recommendations done

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