The war in Afghanistan isn’t another Vietnam, but it isn’t a waste either. It wouldn’t be a good idea to bring the battle to us and start risking the lives of citizens. But, we are just losing more and more troops and taking more casualties. The terrain there is too complicated. The Taliban’s guerrilla warfare, suicide bombings, and just blending in with the citizens are killing our troops! We are getting nowhere! This is another Vietnam, but this time we have a slightly better justification: we never did anything to the Taliban or Al-Qaeda, yet they decide to kill hundreds of innocent civilians and destroy a couple very important buildings. In Vietnam, our ‘domino theory’ sent us overseas. As much as I hate to admit it, the Vietnamese might have had justification to torpedo our ship. They just wanted us out. But instead of withdrawing, we act as ‘the tough guy,’ and send 500k troops over there to fight a pointless battle.
First of all, there are many reasons to be in Afghanistan. The Taliban + Al-Qaeda had absolutely no reason to be attacking us. They wanted to show how westernization is bad? Still they had no reason to attack us like that. We have every right to be in Afghanistan. This isn’t like Vietnam where we thought the domino theory was real. This time, it’s about showing our strength and care for the world. A world without terrorism is what we wanted and, though I don’t blame them for them viewing things the way they want, a world full of peace. We have every reason to be there.Next, we have to ‘bring the fight to them.’ Showing we are strong is good, too, but if we ignore them, they’ll continue to kill innocent civilians. We can’t stand and do nothing. I’m not saying our soldier’s lives are worthless, but we should still continue fighting… a different way. Instead of fighting, we should rethink the strategy plan and fight a different way. Which brings me to my next point:
Afghanistan isn’t an exact Vietnam, because the death toll is a lot less, but still, even 1 death can be devastating for the family. We need to definitely change our battle plan, but also we need to find a more efficient way. Like a code + prize to those civilians who work with us in telling terrorist from civilian. We need some way to be more efficient in our killing. To many civilians are dying and the other civilians are slowly growing against us. If this continues, all our past work for years and all those deaths will be for naught. The citizens will turn against us and then there will be trouble.
Finally, the War in Afghanistan isn’t another Vietnam War because they attacked us for no reason and we have to ‘bring the fight to them.’ However much we can be in there, we still need to change our battle plan. If this continues, there will be a huge hindrance. However, we still have every right to be there. They wanted to show how westernization is bad, I don’t blame them for believing what they want, but they had no right to act so rashly. Thousands died that day and more will if we leave Afghanistan. Many will say different, but I think Afghanistan won’t be for naught, even for the rest of the world, a world that could be free of some serious terrorists.
-Erwin "Pedia:" 7th Grade Student