Brooks+M.--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

Brooks Mason

How should the United States proceed in Afghanistan? Should they leave in 2014 and hope that Afghanistan can protect themselves, or should they stay “for at least another decade” (Nordland), like Afghani President Hamid Karzai requested, to make sure Afghanistan is stable enough to protect themselves and hold a stable government? Many people, both Afghani and American argue both ways. In my opinion, they should leave at the destined date.

The War in Afghanistan can be argued as a just war as both ways. In my point of view, I see it as a just war, because it follows the two criteria of right intention, which was to drive out the Taliban and rebuild Afghanistan’s government and economy, and military necessity, which was needed to drive out the Taliban. The US entered Afghanistan for the right intention, in which our goal is to drive out the Taliban in Afghanistan, in which we succeeded “in 2004 after American-led forces had overthrown the Taliban” (A&E Television Networks), and to help rebuild their government, economy, and military, in which we are doing so right now. We didn’t just invaded just to invade, we had a purpose to, and we promised to keep working at that purpose. Afghanistan was in need of some one to aid them in keeping the Taliban out, so the US stepped in and “in 2004 ... American-led forces [overthrew] the Taliban” (A&E Television Networks). Military involvement was an extreme necessity, and if the US hadn’t of stepped in, there would have been no way that Afghanistan would have been able to hold off the Taliban. The US went into Afghanistan for the right intention, to hold off the Taliban and help recover their economy and military, which we wouldn’t have been able to do without getting the US military involved.

I believe that US involvement is helping Afghanis. The US is rebuilding their economy and military, and also holding off the Taliban at the same time. One way to show that the Afghanistan is benefitting off of US aid is through the Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who gladly appreciates US aid and uses it well, and he even asked for more aid “for at least another decade” (Nordland) at the Bonn Conference in Germany. President Karzai needs that aid in order to build his economy, and that right there is proof in which the US is benefitting Afghanis. The Chairman of the Afghan Government, Ashraf Ghani, also believes that the US is benefitting Afghani people, and wishes that they “replace the military presence with an economic one” (Arabella M. Wiki). Ghani wants the US to take away the military aid and replace it with an economic one so that more money will pour in to help them get out of their economic crisis. US General John R. Allen also believes that the US is benefitting Afghanis, and “he wants to be there until he feels Afghanistan will be under protection by their own forces” (Bobby B. Wiki). This time, it is a military benefit, and not an economical benefit, and he wants the Afghani military to be able to hold off the Taliban so their people will be safe. We want Afghanis to be safe, and be able to live in their own country without being easily overrun by the Taliban.

Although the US involvement helps the Afghanis, I believe that the involvement in Afghanistan is hurting the US. The War in Afghanistan is extremely expensive, and with the debt crisis we are in at this very moment, we need to stop spending as much money as we can. Rep. Ron Paul also believes that the War in Afghanistan is harming Americans, and “he believes that the U.S.’s economy will stabilize once the U.S. leaves Afghanistan” (Lucas S. Wiki). Paul believes that the US is spending too much time and money in Afghanistan, and that time and money could be used to help get our economy back on it’s feet. Senator Dick Durbin also believes that “we are wasting money on the war” (Sarah H. Wiki) and that that money could be used to fix our economy. Durbin wants us to flee Afghanistan because we are wasting hundreds of billions of dollars and military personnel, when we could be using those to help rebuild our own economy. The Veterans for Rethinking Afghanistan also believes that the War in Afghanistan is harming the US because “the blood of American troops is on the line...” (Huffington Post). They believe that we need to pull out because they do not want to see fellow military lives be wasted in an endless war. While the US involvement is aiding Afghanis tremendously, it is putting a big dent in our economy, and we should make sure ourself is stable before we start helping other countries become stable.

Throughout the articles we discussed in class, many of them thought the US needs to stay in the war, while many thought we need to pull out of the war. These articles were written by very credible people, and I agreed with the ones who said we need to leave Afghanistan in order to save ourselves. Henry Kissinger, former Nation Security Advisor, says that “70 percent of Americans believe that the United States should withdraw from Afghanistan” (Kissinger). I myself am part of the 70%, and agree that we need to withdraw and use the money we are using in Afghanistan and use it to rebuilding our economy. Barbara Lee, the Representative of California, states in her USA Today article that the US is “spending over $100 billion a year” (Lee) and says that we cannot afford to be spending that kind of money a year. I agree with Lee, and think that we could be using that $100 billion to help take a chunk out of the debt crisis we are in. Linda J. Bilmes, the Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University, and Joseph E. Stiglitz, an American economist and a professor at Columbia University, state in their LA Times article that “1 of every 4 dollars spent on wartime contracting was wasted or misspent” (Bilmes & Stiglitz). That may not seem like a lot, but when added up with the amount we spend in Afghanistan, that ends up being a lot of money, and we could be using that wasted money to be improving our economy. The US needs to pull out of Afghanistan so we can help repair our economy, and get back on the track we were on before.

The US needs to pull out of Afghanistan immediately. We are spending to much money on helping another country, in this case Afghanistan, rebuild their economy, when our economy is in the toilet. It just doesn’t make sense that we are helping someone else when we are in desperate need of help. Shouldn’t we be using the money we are spending on the War in Afghanistan to help ourselves instead of helping someone else? 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, all 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, sources NOT credited •cite sources internally and in a Works Cited, Minor internal citation and WC errors; truncate web address after .com--incomplete wiki citations •edit language errors from writing, few language usage errors •post the essay on Student Recommendations done

Works Cited

//Angeles Times//. N.p., 18 Sept. 2011. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. <http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/18/opinion/ la-oe--bilmes-war-cost-20110918>. ||
 * Bilmes, Linda J., and Joseph E. Stigletz. "America's costly war machine." //Los//

Dec. 2011. <http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/ 2011-05-05-after-bin-laden-bring-the-troops-home_n.htm>. ||
 * Lee, Barbara. "Bring the troops home." //USA Today//. N.p., 12 May 2011. Web. 15

//Washington Post//. N.p., 7 June 2011. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ how-to-exit-afghanistan-without-creating-wider-conflict/2011/06/06/ AG9ydPLH_story.html>. ||
 * Kissinger, Henry A. "How to exit Afghanistan without creating wider conflict."

until 2024." //SFGate//. N.p., 6 Dec. 2011. Web. 8 Dec. 2011. <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/05/ MN3C1M8HOA.DTL>. ||
 * Nordland, Rod, and Steven Lee Myers. "Afghanistan's Karzai asks for support

<http://www.biography.com/people/hamid-karzai-537356>. ||
 * "Hamid Karzai Biography." //biography.com//. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2011.

Lucas S. Perspective Wiki

Arabella M. Perspective Wiki

Bobby B. Perspective Wiki

Blaine F. Perspective Wiki

Sarah H. Perspective Wiki