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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 the United States should 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

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff8700; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 21px;">Post Recommendation Here

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Ben Clark <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Buchholtz Sidor <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">American Studies <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">12-15-11

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> How Should The U.S Proceed in Afghanistan?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> Why is the United States fighting in Afghanistan? The U.S has been fighting the war in Afghanistan, where its roots have began since 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, with which it shares a border. We started funding insurgent forces to fight back the Soviets, which turned out to backfire when we started to invade. The United States invaded in 2001 to help the Afghanistan government contain a stable government and to help suppress the forces of the Taliban. This made us regret our decision to fund the Afghans because they had the firepower to hold us back. The U.S should stick with its idea to withdraw forces in 2014 as we have not made enough progress in the past years.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> Even though the U.S went into Afghanistan with the right intentions, to help them create a stable government and to protect them from communism. Some say that Afghanistan has gotten worse since the U.S came in, and that we are just there because we need oil, which the middle east is one of the U.S's largest suppliers of oil. Also it looks like we are just trying to "get back" at the Taliban as a result of the September 11 attacks on the world trade center. This does fall under the just wars criteria because the Taliban were not negotiating with us and we needed to protect the people in Afghanistan. Although, you could look at it as just trying to get revenge. No matter what view you use on the war, we need to leave and let them solve their own problems. We have spend countless dollars in Afghanistan trying to make peace, and its starting to look like all that money is being spent without any progress.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Though we are planning to leave Afghanistan, our involvement there has helped the Afghan people more than hurt them. If we leave though, people may start to hurt them. My first perspective comes from Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. According to Brooks Mason, Hamid Karzai appreciates our help and wants us to stay longer than we plan to stay. If the U.S was hated by the people and it was known, I don't think that he would want us to stay if the people didn't. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Also, if the United States wasn't planning on helping the Afghan people, Karzai wouldent allow it stating that he "is interested economically, politically and socially with Afghanistan because he wants to revive the extremely low economy, do the best he can to make his people happy and do the best job he can as Afghan President." My next perspective comes from Ashraf Ghani, Chairman, Afghan Government Transition. It states that "we reduced our financial aid to Afghanistan from 4 billion to 2 billion dollars and because of this the country has started to struggle with their economy and security." Which means that the people are not benefiting, and will not benefit from the U.S leaving at all. My last perspective comes from General John R. Allen, who is the Commander of the International Security Assistance Force. John states that “<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">We will support the Afghan government as it strengthens governance and rule of law." If we keep helping them build law, the Afghan people will benefit from a safer place to live. According to Bobby Brunner, he thinks that John wants to leave in 2014, but we may have to stay in longer to ensure Afghanistan protection.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">I also think that the U.S taking troops out of Afghanistan will benefit American citizens by a long shot. The first prospective is Rep. Ron Paul who was wrote about by Lucas Sencio. Lucas stated that "<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Ron believes that the U.S.’s economy will stabilize once the U.S. leaves Afghanistan. Many people do not support his views, so if the U.S. did leave Afghanistan and the economy went up, it would give him a boost on his campaign." I personally agree with this, if the U.S leaves Afghanistan then the billions that are being spent to help Afghanistan. As of now the money that is making invisible progress will be put to restoring the economy. If the economy rises, then the U.S will flourish and help the American citizens. My next prospective on the war comes from Robert Gates. Gates stated that "we have spent to much money and sacrificed to many lives to just leave before the country is stable." I agree because if we leave too early, the Taliban will just gain control again and it would threat the U.S citizens to another attack like the one on the world trade center. Gates also said that "If we do leave we should leave our combat troops to be last for security purposes." This I'm not so sure about, if we leave our troops there were just asking to get them killed. My last prospective comes from Ryan Crocker, written about by Stacy Gibson. Crocker states that <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">" our goals are to get soldiers out of Afghanistan as quickly and as smoothly as possible." This alone would help our citizens because they are wanting to leave anyway. If we get some troops out the the morale in American would shoot up by just the thought of us getting out.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">In conclusion, I think that we should definitely leave Afghanistan at least by 2014. If not by then, then maybe 2016. We are making the correct decisions, and they are helping both Afghan citizens and American citizens. The Afghans will be confident with a new and non-corrupted government and the U.S citizens will be happy with a new economy with much more money and their families will get their members back.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">Works Cited: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14.4px; text-align: left;">Diehl, Jackson. "Ryan Crocker’s ‘strategic patience’ in Afghanistan."

Washington Post 11 Sept. 2011: n. pag. The Washington Post//. Web. 8 Dec. 2011//
//Volack, Jason M. "Ron Paul Booed During Debate."// ABC News //. (13): 1. Web. 8 Dec.// //2011//

//"Bio: Hamid Karzai."// FOX News//. N.p., 23 Jan. 2003. 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, 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. summary 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; wiki sources not included in WC •edit language errors from writing, minor spelling, grammar and other language usage errors •post the essay on Student Recommendations done

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