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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; color: #000000; 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; color: #000000; 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; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px;">•organize your ideas in extended power paragraphs, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px;">•establish the credibility of sources, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px;">•cite sources internally and in a Works Cited, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; 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; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Student Recommendations

Ashley Murray Sidor Period 8 12/14/11 Position Essay

Currently, the United States' actions in Afghanistan are purely for protection. The US government wants to stay in Afghanistan to stabilize their government and economy. We also want to stay to prevent any war from coming onto ourselves. The Taliban, the previous ruler of Afghanistan, had led the country into a failing state, and the Afghans are currently in attempt to rejuvenate. In the long run, if we completely get rid of the Taliban and secure the country before leaving, the US believes that we will be protecting ourselves from more terrorist invasions. I also agree with staying to protect our country. I think that the US should stay in Afghanistan until the economy can support itself because we are definitely helping the country come a long way. I don’t think that we should leave and watch them unravel when we are so useful to them, and wouldn't want to open any opportunities for the Taliban to harm the US.

The War in Afghanistan is a just war because it follows the Just War Theory. According to Jus ad bellum, the war started as a last resort. "After the attack on the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, President George Bush gave the Taliban an ultimatum to hand over Mr. bin Lade. When it refused, The United States joined forces with rebel groups that had never accepted Taliban rule..." (New York Times Topics). Therefore, it was a last resort because the force was used only after all peaceful alternatives were tried. It was also a just war because we had a just cause; we were afraid that if we didn't defend ourselves against Al Qaeda, there would be another misfortune. Los Angeles Times explains that our intended goals were to destabilize Al Qaeda and eliminate its leaders. This is a just cause because we were only attempting to harm the people we were afraid of-- all for protection of our own country. The War in Afghanistan is a just war because it does follow the criteria in Jus ad bellum.

Staying in the war is not harming Afghanistan. Right now they are dependent on our country. One of Obama's former afghan advisors, Vali Nasr, is worried that the Taliban is surging. He thinks that the US makes Afghanistan feel safe, and that we shouldn't walk away (Michael M). Right now Afghanistan is not safe without us protecting them, and they cannot defend themselves without back up; they are in need of our teamwork militarily. Corbin D also explains that Lara Olson, researcher of humanitarian focuses at the University of Calgary, also believes we should stay in Afghanistan until 2014 because the children of Afghanistan are malnourished. The children have an unimaginable lack in nutrition; if the US left now, this problem would be unsolved along with many others. The US is also enabling Afghanistan to improve on their own. Wahidulla Shahrani, Afghan minister, is expected to dramatically improve the Afghan economy, and he wants to provide money for security so the US can leave in 2014. He would not be able to do this without assistance from the US (Elena M). The US is needed to stay in order to rescue their people and economy.

The US continuing in Afghanistan would proceed in harming the US today economically. But, if we were to leave, there could be worse consequence. According to Stacy G, Ryan Crocker, the Ambassador of Afghanistan, thinks we should stay until the country is stable. He personally wants to stay because he doesn't want to witness a repeat of events-- last time the US abandoned Afghanistan, they suffered a terrible tragedy… the rise of the Taliban. If the Taliban was to come back, it's possible we would be targeted; this could put our country in great danger. General John R. Athens, from the US military, wants to stay until the government is stable as well because he feels that there will be more problems with the Taliban in the future, and he wants to make sure that Afghanistan can defend itself (Bobby B); possibly even defend us. With our current goal of 2014, we might be able to leave completing our mission. Barrack Obama thinks that Afghanistan is on its way to success, that we can start gradually pulling our troops. According to Jill W, we could have 10,000 troops out by the end of next year. Although the war is causing some problems within the US today, leaving would be problematic; even if we do begin to come out sooner than expected, we should wait for a more appropriate time to leave completely.

I definitely think that we should stay in Afghanistan until the government is solid, even if it isn’t by 2014. Leaving before we finish could just result in all of our progress dissolving into nothing. It could even result in another war. I know that the war is hurting many other Americans, but I think that there is always something our country could give up in order to promote the better.

__ Works Cited __ "Afghanistan." New York Times Topics. "2001-2008". Nov. 22, 2011.

Myers, Steve Lee, and Rod Nordland. “Afghans Say Aid Needed for Years to Come.” //New York Times.// N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Dec. 2011.

"War," Stanford University Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 07/28/05, [|http://plato.standford.edu], 04/05/11

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, generally done, without evidence

•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 are mostly correct; WC is formated correctly but does not include all sources cited

•edit language errors from writing, minor spelling, grammar and other language usage errors

•post the essay on Student Recommendations done