Per our conversation at the end of class today, I want you to have a conversation with someone (parent, sibling, relative, friend, or peer). After you have your conversation, write a reaction to your conversation.
The class discussion and articles that I have read about the war in Afghanistan have helped me better understand this war. I had this conversation with my brother. He knew about the same as I did before economics class. I started off by asking him how many wars were in, he said, “Three, one with China, another with Iraq, and finally Cuba”. Then I told him how there is two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan. He thought all of that was just one huge war. I then asked if he knew why we were in war with Afghanistan, he thought it was to get oil. I further explained why and what were doing in Afghanistan. I told him about the war being on terrorism and the corrupt government. I basically put it all out there, the reasons why we should or shouldn’t stay in the war with Afghanistan.
I asked him what we should do. He said, “We should stay in the war”. He defended this point by talking about how Afghanistan has nuclear weapons and if we leave there country we won’t be there to regulate these bombs. The amount of money we have spent seems incredible to him, he couldn’t believe how many billions of dollars we have spent on this war. So to further defend his argument he talked about the money would go all to waste. He said, “We already spent all this money, so if we just pull out it would all be wasted. Let’s instead stay in this war and make it all worth it”. I then asked him, “Are the lives of about 1800 American soldiers worth the fight for another country’s issue”? He knows someone’s life is priceless, and that it would be very disrespectful to put a price on their life. The two points (amount of soldiers that have died and fixing another country’s issue) made in the question I asked him changed his opinion. He is now undecided of what is the right choice.
My impression of this conversation was excellent. I was surprised by my brother how clueless he was about this war and yet was able to defend his first opinion quite well. This conversation also led me to see the other side of the story. It opened up many different ways of seeing this argument. Overall I felt good about this conversation because I opened someone eyes to the reality of this “conflict”.
-Ignacio Montor
Ignacio – It is amazing how little some people know about such an important issue. However, you ask the question to your brother concerning the life of a soldier and if it is worth another country’s issue. Is this only an issue for Afghanistan or is this a global war on terror? Overall, I am glad you educated your brother on this topic because it pains me to no end that some people are just clueless about important issues that have a dramatic impact on the lives of all Americans in some way, shape, or form. I am also glad this was a good experience for you. Overall, be sure to proofread your response. Content 5; Organization 5; Total 30/36.
ReplyDelete