4 positions on the problems in the Middle-East

Position Papers

Paper 1: Trudy Rubins summarization of David Kilcullen. Kilkullen believes that the way to defeat the Taliban forces is to remain in Afghanistan. In doing this,we will keep the Taliban rule from expanding farther than it already has. Kilkullen Also believes that more U.S. troops are needed in addition to a well-developed counter-insurgency strategy. He also believes we need to work alongside and train the Afghan Army and Afghan Police to create a stronger counter-Taliban force. Though he explains many military based solutions to the Taliban problem, he knows the solution cannot be exclusively by the military.

Paper 2: Michael A. Cohen and Parag Khanna, the authors of “Where the Real Fight Is” argues “The real fight is in Pakistan, not Afghanistan…” They support this argument by stating the Taliban is too disliked in Afghanistan they have no chance in taking back the country. The authors argue that the best way to counter the Taliban is the majority of “U.S. political and military efforts to Pakistan” The paper goes on to point out many areas of our predicament in the Middle-East and how to effectively win this war against the Taliban, we need to shift our focus from Afghanistan to Pakistan, where the real problems are.

Paper 3: The author of this paper believes that since the Afghans have always resisted foreign occupations, we should not act as a stabilizing force in Afghanistan. The author also believes we should withdraw our troops from the area as a way of showing peace to the countries not only in the Middle-East, but also other countries who hear of this removal. He later goes on to say that the solution to this problem is political, not military. “…a withdrawal of all U.S. forces, either preceded or followed by a regional pact to guarantee Afghan stability for the next ten years.”

Position 4: This Writer believes that the objectives are “unattainable.” Due to this, we need to reduce the amount of troops in the area and modify our military strategy. He supports his resolution by stating, “the war already is nearly 50% larger than the combined U.S. involvements in two world wars.” This statistic shows just how large this war has become. We must pull out a number of troops. By doing so we can re strategize with a smaller, more controlled force.

Obama's Plan

The new military plan President Obama has put forth is to send 34,000 more troops into Afghanistan. Personally I don’t disagree with this decision, but in addition to this, we need more troops in Pakistan. Obama’s reasoning for sending in these troops is to build up the Afghan Army to counter the Taliban forces. He also said, “If conditions permit” the troops will be sent home in 18 months. I don’t think 18 months is enough. We can’t train the Afghan army in 18 months and trust that they can hold their own against the continuously growing Taliban. This will take much more than 18 months to finish, but I’m sure whatever Obama comes up with will work out in the end.

Why do Children Join the Taliban? How has it impacted them? and why do the Taliban continue to grow?

Children join the Taliban because they have no other choice. Their families have been wiped out for the most part, and when they are young, don’t know any better. In addition to this, they envy the weapons of the Taliban. These are two of many reasons they would join the Taliban.

The war has impacted the children of the area in many ways. For one, many of the children have lost their families. This forces them to either join the Taliban of live on their own. Also, the Taliban are destroying schools in the area. This is a very high danger to the children. After destroying and taking over schools, they turn them to Taliban training schools. This being the main way of education. These schools teach the Children how to fight and also about suicide bombing (which, by the way, many want to do).

The Taliban continue to grow mainly because of the children. Frontline briefly talks about how the children like the weapons of the Taliban. This could be one reason the Taliban continue to grow. Another reason the Taliban continue to expand is because they train children at such a small age that they don’t know any other way of living. Also as explained before, the Taliban are bombing houses schools, etc. and families are being killed. Children think the way to escape this is to join the Taliban. (And also it’s cool (to the people of the area)).

4 problems faced by the U.S./ NATO Forces

After watching the war briefing, I found four problems that are faced by the U.S./ N.A.T.O. Forces

1.) 1.) Fear: The main reason we are not so successful in communicating with the locals in Afghanistan is because the Taliban are making the locals fear them. We cannot get valuable information from the afghanis because they are told if they are to tell the Americans anything, they will be executed.

2.) 2.) We are fighting on their land: Since the land in Afghanistan is so mountainous and rocky (with very high desert temperatures), we are not used to it. Taliban, on the other hand, being born in these tyes of areas, are used to the land. This gives them a very large advantage over the U.S./ NATO forces.

3.) 3.) Another problem is that Obama doesn’t have very much support from the people of the United States. Because of this, it makes his military/ strategic decisions very hard to make

4.) 4.)Also, the Pakistani and Afghani government has been losing power over the people of the country. Because of this, the Taliban have taken advantage of the moment and become a very powerful power in the country.