How the U.S plans to leave Afghanistan
This article discusses the U.S plans to leave Afghanistan in 2014. It says that NATO will have to leave a relatively small counter terrorism unit to deal with possible terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and other extremist organizations. The infrastructure of Afghanistan is still not up to where it needs to be in order to protect itself and maintain a stable government/country. Because of this, NATO will also have to provide air support and medevacs in addition to training more Afghan pilots. I think that groups will try to obtain control of the country once the U.S leaves , including the Taliban of course as well as several more. Hopefully Afghanistan will be able to defend itself and become an ally of ours in the middle east. It would be a shame if this ends up like Vietnam and the U.S allied group doesn't even keep control of the country.
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Honestly, I think it's about time US is leaving Afghan. I also have to agree with Dan: groups will most likely try to gain control, but Afghan needs a good government to prevent this problem. If they establish a good government, maybe they will do well in the future. As I have seen this problem, the United States should never have been involved. Foreign affairs should wait until our own problems are fixed, which they are not...yet. I hope that Afghan has a chance at being a normal country and not turn into some corrupt, anti-US country. It would be pretty nice to have them as a partner in the future.
ReplyDeleteIt is very true that other terrorist organizations will attempt to gain control after Amercia's leave, but I do agree with Aubrey that America has been in Afgranistan too long. However, I feel as though America should stay in Afganistan, until Afganistan obtains a strong and steady government. I have to respectfully disagree with Aubrey's stance on
ReplyDeleteAmerica's decision to intervene with Afganistan's issues. America is known as the super-power of the world, which means America is partly responisble for the issues of "weaker" countries. I too, hope that Afganistan does not end up like Vietnam.
With the country of Afghanistan still not being as strong as it could be once America pulls out, there is clearly a worry that the terrorist regimes will once again gain control of the government and country undoing anything that was put in place by the United States. Hopefully the prominence of some NATO planes given Afghanistan's future lack of an air force by 2013 will act as some sort of deterrent thus giving Afghanistan some time to get in the swing of trying to run a successful country.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. is making great progress in the removal of troops from the Middle East, but it is still very obvious that Afghanistan is completely unstable and unsuitable to be left to fend for itself. This is seen by the 10,000 troops we plan to leave there. I think that that's still a lot of soldiers. Also, the risk of losing control of Afghanistan to anti-American forces is still very high. It happened before, and we might make the same mistake twice. The whole situation is very complex and it will be very interesting to see how we respond to Afghanistan's changes.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion on this always changes. Today in class when we watched the movie "When the Levees Broke" there was a quote right at the end of the movie that I wish I could remember the exact words to, but it was something along the lines of having so much influence and military forces outside of the country, but when the country needed it themselves, they were no where to be found. I think we so often are consumed in world affairs, that we do not always focus as much energy as we should on the home front, so I am glad that troops are coming home. I still acknowledge that we do need to have a presence in the world, but I think we reevaluate how much of a presence it should be. There's a lot that needs to be done at home too.
ReplyDeleteAgain I agree with both Dan and Lauren. I totally agree with the fact that sometimes America is so caught up in foreign affairs that we sometimes forget about what is best for us. I also agree with Dan that this is a very sensitive situation. Honestly, I can't decide about how I feel about this. On one hand I feel like we should just focus on our own national issues, but on the other hand, I feel that keeping order in the Middle East is what's in our best interest.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that we have been in Afghanistan long enough. I think if we went there in the first place, and did not go to Iraq and Iran, they would be a lot better off today, and we most likely would have been out already. Now, no one can really know what will happen when we leave. The U.S. has been training the Afghan Army, and they have come a long way. From everything that I have seem, I do think that they would be able to support themselves, unless it gets really out of control and they need assistance. That assistance also does not necessarily have to come from the U.S. This is also another example of Obama keeping his promises. He said he was going to get us out of Iraq and he did, not he is getting us out of Afghanistan. Once all of our troops are home, we can finally focus our problems. That is until we need to assist Israel if necessary.
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that we have been in the Middle East long enough, and the things we have been doing over there have been costing our country, but even more, the lives of many soldiers. Right now the U.S needs to get back on track, but obviously we do not want to see all the work we put into Afghanistan be undone by terrorists. That being said Dan brought up an interesting thing with Vietnam because, correct if I am wrong, don't we have at least a good trading relationship with them? They do not have to have a democracy for us to get along with them, but I would rather Afghanistan have a representative democracy. Hopefully everything runs smoothly and we can enjoy a prosperous relationship with them further down the road, but I think at this rate the longer we stay there, the more resentment they are going to show us and vice versa as time has already shown.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone that this is a thorny issue. We absolutely need to draw down our troop levels in Afganistan, but it has to be done gradually so the country is better prepared to fend for itself. We do not have enough money anymore to be the world's policeman, and frankly we shouldn't want to be. Occupying another country is occupying another country no matter what we say our aims are.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we should definately leave Afghanistan. I hope that when we do leave they are able to defend themselves. That's why I think that it's great that we will help train Afghan pilots. Hopefully everything turns out fine for them.
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