Afghanistan project

Afghanistan is an old country that has a severe history of wars and political turmoil due to it’s position in Asia. The Khyber Pass links Afghanistan directly to India as well as Russia. What I believe to have begun the problems in this country is when the Soviets invaded it in December of1979, in an attempt to prop up a pro-communist regime. This led to the United States and Afghanistan’s neighbors getting involved. After the Soviet withdrawal the Taliban brought stability. That stability lasted until the US and Taliban began fighting over Osama Bin Laden, a way was paved for the opposition groups to attempt to drive the Taliban from power. In the post-Taliban period there has been a lot of infighting between the local commanders over power and territory. Afghanistan is on a long road to recovery, everything has been stripped to ruins; the economy, environment and the infrastructure are a mess. Afghanistan is also one of the poorest countries in the world. It’s main source of income is agriculture. The biggest crops are corn, barley, rice, wheat, fruits, vegetables, cotton, tobacco, madder, castor beans and sugar beans. Another big source of income comes from sheep farming and the Opium Poppy better known as Heroin.
As for the military intervention going on in Afghanistan I think that it is a waste of time and troops. Afghanistan is the country with the most refugees in the world. It has had 7 years of drought and 25 years of war. In the beginning it was a noble mission but somewhere since then it seems the militaries have begun to get off track. A soldier once said, “If I see someone moving around at night I’m just going to shoot them.” What kind of a peace mission is that? They also need to re-think their strategy. For instance why is President Obama sending 17,000 troops overseas? The rural nature of Afghanistan is exactly why the US cannot defeat the Taliban. They only have enough forces to control certain urban areas. In order to beat them they would need hundreds of thousands more troops. No one can know for sure but it seems that Obama thinks that since 20,000 extra troops could suppress violence in Iraq then 30,000 should do the same job in Afghanistan. But that thought is entirely unfeasible, you would need about 1 soldier for every Afghan. Another thing that the military leaders should re-think is, are they actually wanted there? After all the years they have been over there less than half of the people view the US favourably. The people in Afghanistan are receiving cross messages, on one side this is considered a peace mission but on the other side more troops keep on getting brought in. Carl Conetta, the co-director on The Project On Self Defence said, “we need to remind ourselves, we are not Afghani, we are not Iraqi. We need to remind ourselves that we are sending hundreds of thousands of people into these countries who do not share the religion, who do not understand the culture, who do not have kinship relations with local people, and who do not even speak the language.” As for the women they have more to worry about now. They are still being raped and yet now they also have to worry about bombings, raids and the possibility of their husbands dying. Overall a military solution isn’t the answer, Afghanistan isn’t a place where you can bring peace by force.
When it comes to the media and Afghanistan the report back is very limited. Every once and a while you will hear updates or if there were any Canadian soldiers killed. People at home don’t get the whole story, they don’t even get half the story. It’s not reporters fault though, it’s the big networks that have the specific guidelines on what can be shown on television and unless people go out and look for the truth they won’t find it. The opinions caused by the media shown is that there’s nothing wrong, the military has everything covered, but is this the truth? Not many people know the true answer to that question. I believe that there’s no point having an opinion on something if you don’t know all the facts or else you are assuming and we all know how well that works out.
What the people at home need to consider for a peaceful solution in Afghanistan is that maybe, just maybe the people there don’t want their foreign help. What has sending thousands of soldiers overseas accomplished besides more violence? What do they think they can do honestly. Having all these outsiders come in and try to control them has just made them rebel even more than before. Now civilians have to fear for their own lives because of bombings that are intended for the soldiers. Yes, maybe there has been some improvement but how many lives have been ruined or worse ended to further this ‘peace’ mission? If you ask my opinion, just leave them alone and let whatever happens happen because the military isn’t doing such a bang-up job. At least the people won’t have to worry about roadside bombings and military raids. Just leave Afghanistan alone and think about how much would you like it if foreigners came over to your country packing guns and telling you that they were there on a peace mission. Would you give up and let them control you or would you fight back?