Challenging The Myths Of The "Good War"

We are so fortunate to have one of C.A.N.'s points of unity be against the occupation of Afghanistan because it allows us to work as a group to educate others about why this occupation is wrong. This article offers a neat perspective. Some of the important things I got out of it were that the U.S. military is treating the occupation of Iraq and the occupation of Afghanistan as the same thing. This is shown because the troops who first went to Afghanistan and then to Iraq (or vice versa) did not receive training in between deployments. We must argue that the two are different conflicts. Yes, they are similar in that the justification to invade both nations was false, but they are two separate and distinct countries, with different cultures, histories, and peoples. Another point is that the Taliban, political turned terrorist group, has now gained more power because of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan. Also, the people of Afghanistan are now angry about the destruction of their country.

This article also points to the horrible attrocities against women's rights, making the group RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) much more vital to the nation. It is unfortunate, because with all of the attacks on civil rights in Afghanistan, the people have been turning to the Taliban as a "lesser of two evils" approach.

The part of the article which I enjoyed most, and which I have never heard being argued before was, is the U.S. justified in being in Iraq and Afghanistan to capture Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, respectively. The argument against this is brilliant and simple: why should entire nations, civilians and all, be held accountable for the attrocities committed by one person, or a handful of people? Was the entire U.S. population held accountable for Timothy McVeigh? Another argument could possibly be to punish the supporters of Hussein and bin Laden. Wait a minute, though, because the U.S. government supported them, right? So, we can't possibly just do that!

To close, both of these occupations, though not the same, and yet not completely different, need to be ended immediately. The people of both nations deserve to live in sovereign states, free of the U.S. and free from having to turn to terrorist organizations as governments to have the "lesser of two evils."

-Patricia
College Not Combat, Troops Out NOW!