Four Positions on Afghanistan

Position 1 - Proposed by David Kilcullen an Australian Counterinsurgency expert

- The Taliban is to large of a threat to the Country of Afghanistan. The US cannot allow the Taliban to over take Afghanistan, even if this means the US needs to increase the amount of troops bieng sent into Afghanistan.

1) The idea behind sending more troops into Afghanistan is to protect the people from the Taliban while training the Afghan Army to become strong enough to protect the people of their country.

2) The Afghan tribal areas have become a safe haven for Taliban fighters. This Area needs to be Taliban free if the Afghanistan government is to retake control of their country.

3)The US needs to prevent "Taliban take Over." The US needs to protect the Afghan people while re-buiding and training Afghanistan to be able to protect their own country.

Position 2 - Michael A. Cohen and Parag Khanna : The real fight isn't in Afghanistan, its in Pakistan, mainly in the tribal area's.

1)The succes in Pakistan has been greater then in Afghanistan. American troops are getting better result in pakistan then in Afghanistan. Also many of the Taliban leaders are located in Pakistan.

2) The American forces must help the Pakistani Army become strong enough so that they can clear out the Tribal area's within their country of Taliban fighters.

3) They believe that the Taliban will not be able to take over Afghanistan therefor, there is no need to fight in Afghanistan because of the lack of general support tawords the Taliban from the People of Afghanistan

Position 3- Focus on regional regulations rather then Military solutions : written by Tariq Ali - Afghans have always denied foreign occupation, so the US forces should with draw in favor of peace.

1) People join the Taliban because its the only way to get out of having a foreign occupation present.

2)Creating a regional pact should be a higher priority then sending more US forces to fight. This pact would guarantee support from larger countries surrounding Afghanistan.

3) The people of Afghanistan have been tired of war for years and years, and would want and accept a peace treaty.

Position 4- Withdrawal of US and NATO troops: written by George Will- Afghanistan is not a war that can be won, US and NAto troops should with draw, and focus on small surprise attacks.

1) The idea of Counterinsurgency is impractical. This plan would involve send thousands and thousands of troops, that would take a decade to fix the problem and return home, if they return home

2) The Afghanistan Government has always been corrupt. It would be impossible to exterminate all of the Taliban and set up a strong enough government to withstand another Taliban.

3)The US should focus on "off shore" attacks. Focusing on Intelligence and missile attacks on the Border of Pakistan. Along with small special ops attacks.

Obama's Speech, Problems and Solutions to war in Afghanistan

There are many problems faced by the US army in Afghanistan. Here are the major issues President Obama articulated on.

1) The Taliban continuously cross the border from Afghanistan back into Pakistani Tribal zones after attacking public area's or US occupied areas. The US does not have permission to cross back into Pakistan, due to the Allied relationship between the US and Pakistan, thus creating a safe haven for Taliban members. The Pakistani army have had a low level of determination to clean out the tribal area's on the Pakistan, Afghanistan border of Taliban members creating a larger amount of Taliban control in Pakistan

2) America army squads have had a rough time trying to create a government and army, strong enough to with stand and challenge the Taliban after the departure of American troops. Elections in Afghanistan have been bamboozled, so its hard for Afghani people to support a government that can hardly make it past an election.

3) Lack of troops within afghanistan has hurt America's chances to take over the Taliban, due to the fact that American forces are fighting the Taliban in small squadrons independently. With limited Air support and small outposts, with no roads to get to and from other bases, American troops take suppressive fire day in, and day out. Also having a small group of soldiers located in a area, makes it hard to conquer a large area, and take over a part of the Taliban.

4) FEAR!!!!!! The Taliban uses fear to make sure that the local people of Afghanistan are not giving out the secrets and cooperating with American forces. As a threat, the Taliban blackmails the people, by saying if you help Americans, we will kill you, (essentially.) American forces don't have this kind of power that the Taliban has, because American forces cannot instill the same amount of fear that the Taliban can. American troops want to decrease the amount of civilians killed by US forces. Thus making it hard to implant fear within the natives minds and prove that they can protect them from the Taliban.

President Obama's plan for Afghanistan.

1) The ideal plan is to send over 30,000 troops within the next 5 months, to train the Afghan army to be strong enough to defend themselves, and to create an government that control the country that it is meant to. President Obama's game plan is to begin by sending over 30,000 troops, who will arrive shortly after Christmas. The troops will begin to withdraw after 18 months of attendance in Afghanistan. The 18 month mark will signal the beginning of withdrawal from Afghanistan. Slowly, troops will return home.

2) I believe the plan that President Obama has outlined, fits the situation to fix future problems with in Afghanistan. I like the Idea of sending enough troops into to try and help regain power for the Afghan army and government. I believe its time for the Afghan army and government to take control of their own country. Creating a stable government and army with the help of American forces will help Afghanistan as a country grow. The government will learn how to control and defeat the drug trade that the Taliban has created, and the Afghan Army will soon find a way to fight of the Taliban potentially eliminating the Taliban.

Part 2 of issues regarding the war in afghanistan

QUESTIONS:

1) Why do children join the Taliban? Give specific examples
2) How has the war in Pakistan impacted children?
3) Had the military offensive by Pakistani army / US military drones been effective? Cite specific examples.
4) How and why does the Taliban continue to grow?

RESPONSE:

1) The Taliban targets poor families, and bribe them with money or food if they decided to send their young boy into the Taliban. Essentially if the family sends their boy to join the Taliban, then the family is protected from the Taliban and will not have to deal with them upsetting the Taliban. Also, young boys are targeted by the Taliban. The young boys grow up running around carrying the guns for the Taliban, and when they get older, thats what they want to become, so they join.

2) It effects the kids life's because when they are caught in the crossfire between the Taliban and the Pakistani army, families are killed and little children are hurt, and it makes life for the kids hard. Also schools are blown up, and kids are not going to school, becoming uneducated. Especially girls schools are taken over by Taliban as bases for planning events.

3)Missiles sent into a village by the U.S. army have been unsuccessful because they have killed so many innocent civilians, while trying to take out one or two Taliban major leaders. The Pakistan army claims to be very successful with attacks and also claims that they will win this war, without a doubt.

4) The Taliban continues to grow because they target young boys to join the Taliban, creating generation after generation after generation of young boys who are willing to sacrifice their life for the cause of the Taliban.

World religion survey!

These are the top 6 religions that were related to me - 

1.	Secular Humanism (100%)
2.	Unitarian Universalism (91%)
3.	Nontheist (83%)
4.	Liberal Quakers (79%)
5.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (75%)
	Reform Judaism (73%) As shown my top Religion is Secular humanism. After first i had looked at it and asked myself, WHAT IS THAT? But after reading through the information about it, i Somewhat agreed with it. AS you might have known ( or been able to tell)Im not a very religious person. I go to church maybe twice a year for the big holidays such as christmas and easter. But when i go i don't really listen. I usually draw on the little papers they have on the bench in-front of you that are meant for little kids but really its meant for me :D But i really don't find church, the bible, stories from the bible, or anything religious really that interesting. I mean i find other foreign religions interesting but not to the point where i could preform them myself.  My top eastern religion was reform Judaism  I somewhat agree with the beliefs of this religion... as i said earlier im not terribly religious. It says non-belief or questioning belief. i do sometimes question beliefs, and god. Some  believe in heaven or hell and other believe in reincarnation. I believe that you will either go to heaven, or be reincarnated as an animal depending on how fierce or nice you lived your life. If you where a good little person never did anything wrong, then you will be reincarnated into a little bunny or something. Or if you lived a wild life, Always close to death, then you will be reincarnated as a lion to rule the safari.

#1 response to Mr U's blog

Reasons why we would should study history-

there are many reasons why, but one main reason is so that we do not create stereotypes about other religions or culture. It helps to know about the world and all the religions and cultures within it.