Tuesday, January 19, 2010

American Government 1/19/10

In Class - Discuss situation in Haiti. What can we do to help? Discuss current events. Class discussion over Afghanistan is on Friday, January 22. There is no make-up for this, so make sure you are in class. If you are going to be absent, see me for alternative assignment.

Homework - Current Event Notebook is due on Friday, January 22. You must have six current events on the topic of Afghanistan or the War on Terror. You need summaries and citations for all of your articles.

Articles to check out:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1954564,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1953426,00.html

Question of the Week: After our discussion on Friday concerning the War in Afghanistan and the War on Terror, I want you to write a reflection about the discussion. What did you learn? What interesting arguments or points of discussion were presented? Did your point of view change in any way or did it stay the same? What quality arguments did other students bring up?

This reflection will be graded the same way as other QOW's.

55 comments:

Arabian Gangsta said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Arabian Gangsta said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Arabian Gangsta said...

I have pointed out in class that we have created this mess and we need to fix it. In my knowledge we created terrorism back in the early days, when we used to spy on other countries. In class people kept saying, "oh we need to stay in Afghanistan for our protection." Well i think not because once we have "killed" the wanted men, there will be more back. Its like a when they found a cure for chicken pox, once we found the cure another popped out.. so we just need to leave.. and help our own people fighting economy.
Nabeel Haffar P2

eliziel said...

like i said during class i think that we are spending to much money on the war on afghanistan and that the longer we are there then they just become more dependable on us and they want us to to fix the problem by our selfs yeah they help but i think taht they dont help very much because if they did then we would have probably solved that issue and and we would have our troops back in the united states by now and i also think that since they like bombing others so much we should do the same and send planes with bobms and finish this once and for all.

Eop Jay said...

After the discussion, I began to relze how many points and angles you can argue about your opinion. Some topics weren't even touched (relegion), were as others were expanded upon to an uneccissary point (them not wanting us there) although i believe every one has a valid opinion, mine stays the same. We should stay there. Not for ourselves, but for them.

Kimberly Becerra said...

What I learned on Friday concerning Afghanistan was very interesting. The war is very important. We did not call for it but the aim is to protect the people. Afghanistan is an issue but we should end it already. We continue to fight and find better opportunities but is getting worse. Too much money has been put into it and our economy is all messes up. Afghanistan doesn’t want to accept out help I think they are now just depending on us.

Davion B. said...

After the class discussion concerning the war in Afghanistan and the war on terror i learned that not everyone is going to agree on everything. For example i believe that we should bring our troops home so we can stop spending so much money. The longer we stay in the war the more money we drain out of our economy. On the other hand, a lot of students in class think we should stay in the war. I do not agree with this. The reason i say this is because lots of people are losing their lives and the united states keep making bad decisions in my opinion. Sending more troops will only cause more problems, the Afghanistan people will feel threatened by this and start killing off more soldiers quickly. That is why i think we need to put our egos aside and bring the troops home to their families and get our economy back to where it was 8 years ago. My point of view did not change during this class discussion even though a lot of people made me think about my view in their prescriptive.

brenda g 106 said...

I didn't say much in class Mr. Palo but there was a lot that I did wanted to say and point out. Listening I heard other points that related to mine. Somebody pointed out about the economy leading to job problems, well getting jobs anyways. America has spent too much time on the war that America can't even help themselves. The Afghan people don't want our help, well the people who do can't speak up because of Taliban threats!
America is in the gutter so much that schools are finally getting hit. Education standards are falling and it'll take years at this point to pay back the nations who we borrow money from. The double edged sword is in affect because of jobs. No jobs here but losing money over there. I say that we should pull out of the middle east overall because the Afghan government is corrupted and heavily influenced by the enemy who use hidden fire attacks to mess with U.S soldiers. More deaths are increasing, Congress and the military men with bloated egos can't pull out without feeling shame. Well they should just sallow their pride, suck it up and just pull out our men.
At this point it is better to have major unemployment then spending millions over in a country where battle was like Vietnamese warfare; bombs, and sneak attacks. Well we learned the affects on the men after they returned and they're still scarred for life.

xX*KR3W*Xx said...

in the debate today showed me a lot of different points and views on the war in afghanistan. everybody had different opinions on what should we do towards the war. i learned a lot of new stuff. the best point that i learned was that if we pull out our soldiers from afghanistan and knowing that our economy is bad and that we have bearly enough jobs then where are the soldiers going to work at or anything like that. in my opinion we should stay because we need to show the taliban that we still have our attention on afghanistan.

xX*KR3W*Xx said...

period 2
Gustavo Sanchez

allypancakes said...

I believe the discussion in class was very productive in opening up the class and helping us feel more comfortable with each other. Everyone made very valid and insightful remarks, especially the kids who don't usually participate in class. Johnny McBride, of course, had his fair share of opinions as well as Kaitlyn Morales. It was interesting hearing both arguments, and entertaining seeing some kids get offended by other opinions. My favorite point that came about during the discussion was "this war is a lose lose situation', which i totally agree with. I believe the U.S. military and Obama are wasting time and much needed money. We need to be selfish, help ourselves here at home, then move on to bigger problems outside the U.S. I see it like when i used to want to go out and play at the park, i couldn't go unless my chores were done and the house clean. We, the U.S., shouldn't be allowed to go out and play with our machine guns unless our home is clean first.
- Ally Smith 4th pr.

OrionPax said...

In my observation of the discussion, of course, there were a lot of different points of view. I can't sat whether I'm left side or right side, since I see the pros and cons of both. Like Connor said, I see why we have to stay, to finish our job and ensure -or at least try- our safety. On the other hand, as Gabby said, we need to pull out, it's hurting our economy, we can't afford it anymore.

Not really intending to sound cold or anything, but I think we need to stay in a little longer and at least secure Afghanistan. Does the term 'acceptable losses' ring a bell? That's my angle here, if more of the soldiers die, there will (theoretically) be less money in circulation and things might equalize each other out in terms of semi-balancing out inflation. It ensures more positions for more soldiers to go out, domino-ing into the fact that as more volunteers go into the military, the more jobs that are open for us.

We can only hope that it comes out like WW2 again, even if it's not the same circumstances.

Either way, my views changed very little, I'm still in the middle.

OrionPax said...

Katie S. Per.2

SLacy222 said...

There were many great points brought up on Friday's discussion on the war on terror. I never actually considered other people's view on this situation. I learned that people have many different view points. Some want the war to continue, some want the war to end. My view still stands though which to continue with the war and get the job done because as I learned on Friday what would we do with all of the troops when they come back home. However, this is a controversial issue and people will have their own opinion on this matter.

Shawn Lacy
P.2

gabby. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gabby. said...

Friday's class discussion I felt was pretty good. The people who did speak had great points of views. Now, as I said in class I do believe we need to stay in Afghanistan, the Afghan people whether they want us there or not need us. I in no way shape or form agree with war what so ever. I do however think that we can help the Afghan people restore their governtment. Right now I do believe that people there are just being brainwashed by the Taliban. We need to continue protecting Men, women, and children. Sure we can be selfish and just leave but we can't always think about ourselves, that's just my opinion. Overall the class discussion went well, I just wish more people would participate and voice their opinions.
Gabby Cervantes
period.2

Kaitlyn M said...

I believe our discussion on Friday was rather productive, being that many people had different views and everyone learned from one another. I felt that as long as everyone stayed polite the disagreements were educational. I learned about the troops having bible verses on their weapons, and although I am a Christian, I believe that the usage of verses does hurt our attempt to win the hearts of the people. But unlike Johnny I do not believe this is a religious crusade, but a safety issue for us Americans and the innocent civilians alike. My point of view did not change, because I believe our troops are needed in Afghanistan to wipe out the Taliban, and once that is accomplished we can begin to arrange a non-corrupt government. Also, before the discussion I honestly had no idea that so many people in our class shared my opinion in that we need to be in this war, until Mr. Palo made everyone share their own personal opinions. I also understand why many people are on the fence, because as Rubisel stated, it is a lose lose situation. So we each personally need to decide which is less of a loss to formulate our opinions.

Kaitlyn Morales
per 4

Leo said...

All the discussion that we had on Friday about Afghanistan was so interesting. I learned a lot of stuff that I did not knew before. I still keep with what I say on Friday, that I think that we need more troops at the war. I also believed that we could wind these, because we are one of the countries that have a lot of technology and have the army. We still have to continue fating for the people on Afghanistan. But I also believe that if we stop fighting on Afghanistan, we the people will be scared that they will invade us again. I think that we are all ready fighting with Afghanistan we can’t go back , we have to finish it. It those it matter if we need to spend more money on it. I also learned that a lot of people have different opinions on what is happening.
Per:4 Leo cabanas

Fidencio Romero said...

On Fridays discussion I learned a lot of things because I never knew that this might be a religious war. Also I changed my perspective because we just need to leave there is nothing more we can do there. We are just letting our troops die in Afghanistan. We should just leave with honor and that way we can help fix other problems here in America. Also one thing that was very important in the discussion was that we can’t help them stable their economy because their economy is based on drugs. Our soldiers go in and try to communicate and if we destroy their drugs they are going to be upset. There country doesn’t really have a lot of options that can help them stable their economy and to have a stable government. Its just another Vietnam war because there really isn’t a actual target its just the Taliban which are just people around the country. Just like one soldier said “we don’t ever see the target we just hear guns going off and fire we back”. We need to leave and not send does other troops that the president has requested.

Fidencio Romero Per.4

Anonymous said...

I think the discussion was not as good as I thought it would be. I say so because everybody had to say the same things. And that I couldn't participate as much as I would like to. Yes ofcourse, there were some interesting and good points brought up. Some had to say that we are helping and protecting the Afgahns and that we should continue to do so, but the truth is that we are helping ourselves. We are there to try and protect ourselves in future. The point brought up about troops was interesting too, sending more troops is important too. The argument that I would have liked to bring up in the discussion is that, As we are going after Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden after 9/11, How can you be so sure that the things that happened and the things that are going on were/are done by Osama Bin Laden? How can you be so sure that nobody made Osama do this? How can you be so sure that nobody is using him as just a face to mislead us about who is their leader? Or he never was their leader, they just used him as a puppet. Apart from that, I think my views didn't change for the most part. I still believe what I used to before. And it was fun hearing what others think and have to say.

Pruthvi Solanki
Per-2

DawnMcNulty said...

After the class discussion on friday concerning the war in Afghanistan I am not so sure anymore where I stand on the topic. Origninally I felt that the United States was too deep into the war to pull out now, and if we did the Taliban would definately regroup and get stronger and attack the U.S. again. But I heard some good different points of view like us being in Afghanistan is not stopping attacks on the the U.S. and that it is basically a pointless war that no matter when we end it the Taliban will eventually rebuild and try to attack us aagain which in a way changed my mind. Another point that was in favor of the war which I agreed with was that even though it seems like a pointless war it is giving thousands of americans jobs which we need in this country because of the economic crisis we are currently in.

aLeX said...

At first I didn’t know how our discussion in class would go, but after Friday I realized how useful our discussion in class was. I did learn some interesting things I didn’t know about, such as putting bible verses on our weapons, which by the way I didn’t agree with. Over all this discussion didn’t change my opinion over the war our country is fighting at this moment. My point of view of the war is that we need to pull out as soon as possible before we loose any more of our troops. We have been in this war for eight long pointless years, because in reality we haven’t really fully accomplished anything. Although, many interesting points were brought up in class concerning both sides of whether or not we should stay in the war. Many agreed we should stay in the war because innocent Afghan civilians were dieing, it would lessen terror attacks, we would be able to establish a stable government for the Afghan people, and wipe out the Taliban. Yet if we get out of the war we would be able to stop putting so much money into the war, re-stabilize our economy, and most importantly no more of our troop’s lives would be lost. Also, just because our troops are in Afghanistan it doesn’t mean we won’t have any terrorist attempts or attacks. I mean just recently there was that attempt of the December Day bombing. Yet just like someone pointed out in class “this war is a lose, lose situation,” despite the reasons given of why it’s best to stay in or pull out of the war. If we stay and fight we loose money and our troops, but if we pull out the Afghan civilians will die and the Taliban will take over. We all need to come to a civilized agreement about what to do and decide which loss would be a lesser loss for us. For me, a lesser loss would be the Afghan civilians dieing, and call me selfish or heartless but the lives of our “American troops” are far more important to me than the Afghan people, seeing as some of my family members are in the army. I don’t think it’s fair “our troops” are out their fighting for people that don’t even appreciate it and won’t help themselves either by helping us fight the Taliban off for them. My point as a whole is that if we want to go out and help others we need to start by helping ourselves first. How do you expect to help someone else if you yourself are all screwed up? And as of this moment we are currently facing many issues and need to fix them before we go out and try and fix the world.

Alex Lopez
Per. 4

LizzieG4 said...

The discussion on friday went well. It was interesting to learn everybodys opinions on Afghanistan and the War on Terror. I stated that I strongly believe that we should stay and finish this war because if we just leave, there is no guarantee that we will be safe from their attacks. Then i started thinking even if we do stay and we finally win, there is still no guarantee that we will be safe. So my opinion changed and now I'm confused. My classmates brought up some good points that really made me change my opinion. Either was its a lose lose situation! So, we should stop wasting our time, money, and lives!

MariselaM said...

My reflection on the discussion on Friday was really eye opening because I didn't think that many people would want us to get out of Afghanistan for the simple reason that they don't want our help in trying to eliminate the Taliban for their safety.

KiMbErLyFaRiAs said...

I changed my mind a little bit.I still think that we should pull out of the war. Someone brought out a good point.It was that if we brought our troops back home there wouldn't be enough jobs.I agree with that because we have a lot of unemployed people.With returning troops it would be impossible to find a job.It would be hard for someone to decide over hiring a veteran or a single mother of four.It would be better if the troops stayed there until the economy is restored.All of this badness going on has to stop someday.

janefurdui said...

I believe that our best interest right now is to stay in Afghanistan. We are there not only to help the Afghan people, but to help protect our national security. Many people think that the reason we are being attacked is because our troops are in Afghanistan, but is that necessarily true? If we leave Afghanistan right now, will the terrorist attacks come to halt? No, terrorism will never stop but we can help prevent it from taking place. If we leave Afghanistan, the Taliban and Al Qaeda will just grow bigger and stronger, and once that happens it'll be too late for us to do anything. Of course we still have the issue about our economy but with all our troops coming back, where are they all going to work? We don't even have enough jobs with the troops not here.

Mukuria15 said...

From what I’m hearing about the class discussion, one of the subjects was the money we’re spending on it. I believe that the amount of money that we are putting into this so-called war (I’d rather call it “Project: Americanization”) is too much and it is hurting our economy. So what if World War II took us out of the recession, well that is a whole different story. The citizens of the United States were united as one mind to win WWII and because of all of the men gone and more weapons or supplies were needed, the term “unemployed” didn’t exist anymore. But this War on Terror business, the people are divided and unlike WWII we’re not really coming out of the recession. Thanks to this war we’re drowning deeper in it. From what I know, aren’t we in debt to China? What the heck, how do we get in debt to China, a communist country who kills anyone who speaks up. How dumb, we’re borrowing money from a country that we don’t support government wise, to help a country that has a government that can’t keep it’s own people in check, -OH and they attacked us. Hm…coincidence, I think not.

LyDia:) said...

Friday’s discussion was very insightful. It was interesting hearing everyone’s perspectives and opinions about the war. This war is a lose lose situation. We currently have power and we will continue to hold that power until the day we decide to leave. When that day comes Al-Qaeda and the Taliban all resume power. We need to bring back our troops and worry about the more important issues going on here rather than stay over there helping people that don’t want our help. It’s evident because any time anything happens the first thing they do is blame us where in return they should be grateful where there fighting for us and them. I think that when we do leave there going to attack anyhow. This war can go on for ages and look what it’s doing were in a horrible economic mess and frankly I’m not sure how we can even afford having so many troops over there and in addition we haven’t accomplished anything other than somewhat leading the Taliban and Al-Qaeda elsewhere. But even so, there still mini terrorist attacks going on even with our troops over there. It’s time to be selfish and worry about our problems in this country and bring our troops back home.

Lydia Jones Period 4 :)

brittney said...

After having that discussion on friday, my eyes have opened up. My point of view didn't really change much though. I still think we shouldn't pull the troops out. Everyone did bring good points to the table too. I learned some differnet things about the taliban people as well.
Brittney Isley
per 4.

crystal said...

After the discussion we had on Friday in my opinion I think that we are taking too long with this war. Plus were spending way too much money on this war that our economy sucks. I understand that we went to Afghanistan to help out the people there, but why help them when they don’t even want us there? I feel like we did our best to help them out. At least we tried and if they don’t want our help then o well tried.

Crystal period 2

cory909 said...

I think that not everyone in the class is going to have the same opinion. So i believe that everyone has there own view on the whole war situation.my own opinion is that we are spending way to much money on the war in Afghanistan. There is no real big reason for us to be in the war.The people in Afghanistan dont want our help so were there for no reason just wasting time and money.Some of the people in class disagree and think the oppisite. They believe that we should stay in the war to help out with the Taliban. I just think that the U.S is wasting there time in Afghanistsan.

Corina C.
per.4

AmberK said...

Although a very good point was brought up in class, that by keeping up the war in Afghanistan, we are putting our economy in a worse position, and if we did end the war our unemployment rate would just go higher, and that could also ruin our economy more.
After our class discussion on Friday, my opinion about us ending the war remains the same. I do not, in any way, agree with this war. Our motive for going to war in the first place was a good reason, but I feel that we've gotten ourselves to deep into other countrie's problems, and lost sight of our own. I'm not against us helping, but not only do they not want our help, we haven't gotten anywhere by trying.
Amber Jackson.
Period2

bRiDgEt said...

The discussion on Fridays concerning the War in Afghanistan and the War on Terror was good. I had the chance to view others perspective on the war on Afghanistan. Everybody got the chance to give their own opinion on what they thought about the war. I got to learn new things on how the war was hurting others and not just us. Some interesting things that came up on friday were jobs and how the war is affecting our economy. Which some people said that the war was affecting our economy .When i personally think the opposite because the war actually gives other people jobs. Jobs related to the war. Also if we do bring the troops back then they won't have a job,meaning that our economy will get worst then it already is. Some disagree and others agree on staying in Afghanistan. Me personally I agree on staying and finish what we started. I think that we should stay because there's many people that need our help. Maybe not every afghan person wants' us to stay and help. However were not just their to help them out but also help ourselves. Because I think that if we leave from Afghanistan,the Taliban's are just going to get stronger and then we won't be ready for them. Although if we do stay we might just get closer on finding were the Taliban are located at. However I do disagree on sending more troops. Unless if we really need to but I still believe that we shouldn't. Just let time pass and as time pass just keep bringing our troops back and maybe send some new ones. Although General Stanley had good strategies that I know it will help find the Taliban's. His strategy was to send more troops and just go and attack but come hard. Which I agree I think that's what we really need. Some new troops that will come hard and just find the Taliban's. So my point of view did not change as much. I still think that we should stay their.

Bridget Fuentes
Period 2:)

ImariL14 said...

The war is another reason to stick our noses where it doesnt belong.Puttin so much money into a war of lost cause. we put dollars after dollars of money our country "supposedly" dont have. We are in a recession and instead of puttin money where it counts we put in into killin people. I understand what we are doin there is for the safety of the afghanistan people but our work is done. we need to get out of there and focuz on the us issues.

Anonymous said...

I learned a lot of interesting things about the opinion on the war in Afghanistan on Friday. I learned that not everyone thinks the same and has different view on the war. Some points mentioned didn’t really make an argument. For example, like someone said,” Just bomb the place!” and I thought that wasn’t a real solution to the problem. In fact, that would have just made the problem grow because we would be doing the same thing they are doing to us. Overall, I didn’t say much in the discussion but I enjoyed hearing different opinions about the war and if we should be there or not. I also learned that if your going to bring a fact up in your argument make sure you support it with something. I plan to be a little more prepared next time and participate more in the discussion.
Tony Chavez
Period 2

alexm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
alexm said...

After the discussion, i realized how many different points of view that everybody has on this subject. I still think that there is no way to resolve and end this war. One student mentioned that the Taliban had been defeated in the past, but returned when the American army left. This means that even if we do defeat them once again, there would still be ways for them to return. I do believe that the people in Afghanistan need help, but it doesn't seem that there is much America can do to make a permanent difference.

Alex Madsen , Period 4

alex_silva4 said...

The discussion on Friday was interesting. I found a lot of points people made very true, and others not so. My opinion about the War has not changed. This is because we would not have work for our soldiers when they come back from the war. I found out that the was we have spent so much money and time over there. One thing is that we really need to stop spending so much money because we need the money to go back into our economy. We have to just finish our job there, before we come back.

Anonymous said...

During the class discussion my view changed slightly. My view on the war before hand, was really torn between pulling out now or pulling out later. The discussion brought things into prospective. It convinced me that we cant really accomplish anything more by being there. I pointed out during the discussion that the war isn't keeping the US a hundred percent safe and were still getting attacked. If we pull out and amp up our security here in the US, it would be just as effective, I think. It was also brought up that this is a lose lose situation and it can't be helped. Overall I thought the class discussion turned out to be fun and enjoyable.

Kenton Goodburn P4

kelleyhobbie said...

During the class discussion many arguments came up about the War in Afghanistan. My view points have changed a little bit but I still believe the war should come to an end very soon. There are so many different problems in America right now including the economy and the unemployment. Our money is continually being spent on the war and the debt is going farther and farther. The war is still at the same point: no one is winning and our goals are continuing to change. Al Qaeda and the Taliban are supposedly gone, but even with our troops there, they might secretly come to attack. Our country can not be 100% safe all the time and I think the troops deserve to be back home.

arisbel said...

After the disscusion in class I learned that we shouldn't send any more troops.My reason was that its only affecting us because we already have problems of our own.Especially with the economy Obama should first think about united states first before he thinks about afghanistan.My opinion was that we shouldn't help afghanistan at all its not that we are being selfish but they are not americans.when we need their help they are never their to help us.This disscusion was very intresting it was really helpfully i actually understood what was going on in afghanistan.At first I was really confused because i heard to different disscusion i really didnt understant it.But my point of view was that we shouldn't even help them we have more important crisis going on.
-Arisbel Miranda per.4-

HorH@y said...

My opinion had changed a lot throughout our discussion on Friday I was very confused of what I really thought would be the best idea to solve the U.S problems. Before the discussion I thought that we should worry about our economy first and then solve terrorist problems in Afghanistan but a student had said “were would all the soldiers go to work if we brought them back right now?” He had made an excellent point and made me think that maybe it is a good idea that we do send more soldiers to Afghanistan and fix that first. I was also thinking after the discussion if we send more soldiers to Afghanistan then maybe it would be easier to find more terrorist and the Afghans that are plotting plans to bomb the U.S. If we can reduce the amount of terrorist and try to find the leaders by sending more troops then maybe we could pay more attention on our economy and less about terrorist attacks and our love ones being killed.

HorH@y said...

George Gallardo
period 2

viper8u2 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
viper8u2 said...

During this discussion I learned that everyone has a separate and valid opinion that they defended with equally valid examples. I thought that an interesting view point was brought up by Johnny. He suggested that the war in Afghanistan is a religious war. I think that this is partially true; the Taliban says that this is a war for jihad and that this is a holy war, but I believe that the majority of Americans think differently. My view has stayed the same despite a vast repertoire of excellent opinions from my fellow classmates. My opinion is that we should stay in the war so that we can finish what we started. If we pull out of the war now then we will be putting our country at risk for another attack. The risk for this attack comes from the Taliban, after we occupied their country for eight years and killed many of their people, I’d put my bet that they’re not very happy with us.

viper8u2 said...

jeff austin
4th period

fatema marvi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
fatema marvi said...

The discussion on Afghanistan and the War on Terror brought about many opinions; some think we should pull out of the war, others believe we should stay and finish our job, and a few were unclear on where they stand because they agreed with both sides. Few interesting points were brought up during discussion like, Bible versus no longer being printed on guns, and one person thought that this war is a religious crusade. Though it might be for the Muslims, I don’t believe it is for America. We are fighting for our safety and to bring an end to Taliban who attacked and killed thousands of people. Another very interesting and thought provoking point was made about what is going to happen to the thousands of soldiers who return from war and won’t be able to find jobs in the poor economy. I never thought about that situation and I am glad it was brought up. Before this discussion, I was somewhat uncertain about where I stand on this issue. I was leaning towards supporting the war and President Obama sending more troops, but now I believe we need to end it quickly and more troops will not be beneficial. It will cause a tremendous economic burden and we cannot risk losing more American lives for a country whose problems seem unsolvable

Fatema Marvi
Period 4

a said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sues said...

I learned how so many opinions could be drawn from a situation. Out of all of them, the most dominant opinion was that we should bring the troops home and leave Afghanistan them to help themselves. One of the opinions I really thought was logical was the one Ukpono presented. He said that its almost useless to send more troops because according to some source, that I can’t remember, if I’m not mistaken about 80% percent of soldier deaths were due to explosives that terrorists plant along roads. Sending in more troops is like sending some soldiers to an almost sure death, without having actually been in any real skirmishes. In my opinion, the Taliban knows that this war is taking its toll on our country, and they’re more than willing to wait it out until we have no other choice but to pull out. We already know that the Taliban brainwashes children at as young as 6. With recruits so young they could go on for years and years hiding out and firing here and there to keep American troops in the dark.

-Jesus Gomez

a said...

Before having this discussion, I was all for the war. I really did not want our troops to pull out, I wanted us to stay and fight until we won. I felt that if we “pulled out” it was like we were giving up and all the people who fought for our country fought for nothing. Also all the innocent people who lost their lives was all for nothing. But, after having this interesting discussion on Friday about the war, it made everything I thought change a lot. I am left at a crossroads and I am so confused about how I feel at this point. So many people had such great arguments that made me think about it more. I currently don’t know where I stand anymore because I am pulled by both sides of this situation.

Amy On
Period 4

Sean C said...

I feel that this class discussion was very beneficial for me. I learned a lot especially from those who really voiced their opinions (Johnny). It seems that even though I wasn’t sure I would learn much and my own opinion wasn’t going to change I was surprised when it actually did. When I came into class I was almost completely for staying in Afghanistan in order to protect the people here in our own country. My opinion was fully based on the fact that staying in Afghanistan keeps those extremists out of the United States and keep the citizens here alive. Even though I was sure my point of view wasn’t even going to falter at the end of the discussion I was completely in the middle of the argument and couldn’t pick a side. I now realize the cons of staying in the war for example; the amount of money that we are losing daily or the amount of volunteer troops that are going there to serve and protect this nation and are coming back in body bags. I learned that coming home would reap more benefits than it would produce the bad things. Though there are pros and cons on both sides I now have a sense of neutral.

Sean Cavenee
Period: 4

Katie T. said...

After our class discussion on Friday i was about sure that it would be a good idea to send the more troops into Afghanistan. Most of the class was against this idea except for Kaitlyn M. For the most part, i agree with Kaitlyn M, we need to finish our job before we can even think about leaving or pulling out. Many of my class mates say it is not our job to be babysitting the rest or the world and watching out for other countries. But the Afghans are human beings that need out help. I am convinced that we should bring in more troops so we can try and get our job done faster. In my opinion i feel that America's role in the world is to help people, especially these to escape the rule of the Taliban. We can get rid of the Taliban and help the Afghans set up a stable government. After that is done we should leave, and what happens after is their choice. At least we will know we helped them as much as we could, and got rid of the Taliban. With the extra troops we will be able to accomplish this faster and come home from was quicker. It would be nice to not we in a war for a while.

Kaitlyn Timmermans Period 4

justinee.grace. said...

Well I went on that field trip to RCC on Friday so I wasn’t here for the discussion. But I will put down my own view on the war with Afghanistan. So firstly, I would have to say that before I came into this class I was one of those people you were describing in class today. I had no clue what was going on in the outside world. I mainly only payed attention to my life, my family, my friends, and my problems. I never knew how important and interesting everything out in the world is and how much it can affect my life. So after hearing about everything and the war with Afghanistan my opinion is that I think it’s not worth it. I think we need to focus more on ourselves and our issues. Maybe we should fix the small problems first then the bigger problems later, because trying to fix everything all at one gets us nowhere.

-Justine Aguilo period 2 (:

*julie* said...

in our class discussion on friday i learned that everyone has a very different point of view. many people were pro war and many were against ther war. one topic that i found very interesting during our discussion was the media and the role it has in the war.some of the other topics we touched were religion and the way our economy is being effected by this.i was against the war and i agreed with one of my class mates that this was a lose lose situation no one ever wins by fighting. nothing can ever be gained.
<3 julie monroy<3 ... per. 4