Afghanistan



 

Can the US win the war in Afghanistan?

The war in Afghanistan has been going on for over a decade.  We invaded the Middle East shortly after the 9/11 attacks, and from this war we have only been able to spend millions of dollars and watch thousands of innocent people die.  Throughout the years Americans have slowly lost their faith that this war will end.  The only notable thing that has been obtained was the death of Osama bin Laden.  We have had examples of prior wars, such as the Soviet-Afghan wars, and we have learned nothing from this.   The geography of the country plays a big part on their success by being a trap in wars along with the Afghan guerilla forces.  Nowadays the Taliban plays a sick game of hide and seek with the US by hiding in the mountains while luring the US troops into other territories.  They are able to remain hidden while the US troops remain trapped on their bases due to the fact that they don’t know where to start.  Another thing that is hurting the US in trying to win the war is the fact that we have countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that are supposed to be our allies but are secretly helping the enemies.  The strong religious background enables this to happen.  We ended up searching for Osama bin Laden for ten years in the wrong country because of this.  This has also made it impossible to distinguish between the civilians and the guerrillas. 

What would victory look like?

I think that if the US was actually able to end the war in Afghanistan that democracy would be spread.  People in Afghanistan would stop being afraid of things and there would be a lot of changes.  Women would be allowed to get an education, children would stop being trained to become killers, buildings could be built and societies would be able to prosper.   A country would be able to rebuild themselves with our help and would become better because of it.  Innocent lives would not be lost and our troops would be able to return home to their own families.  We would also save a lot of money and could go back to helping our own country.

What will it take to win?

I think that in order for us to win we need to have the cooperation of our allies to capture those people who insist on the continued fighting.  There is no need for people to have to die every day.  The article that was posted about Sgt. Bales was a tragedy.  19 innocent people were killed and this man is to blame.  He has become mentally unstable.  We need for our troops to be of sound mind and keep the focus on ending the war, but unfortunately the longer they are there, the more unhealthy they become.  We need negotiations, diplomacy, and acquiring more allies would help to solve this problem.