Grossman Reading

 Analysis on Grossman Reading 

Grossman states that all political acts that occurred in Afghanistan were wrong and led to more widespread issues for both Americans and the Afghan government. After the United States withdrew military support from Afghanistan, the Afghani Government collapsed. The Afghan government was not strong enough to stand on their own, thus depending on nearly twenty years of military support from America. In this case, the Taliban taking over would have most likely occur at any point and time when US troops had been pulled out. The question here is wether this was the right thing to do. In my opinion, yes. Billions of dollars had been spent and American lives had been lost in the fight of preventing terrorist regieme's, which is a war that is close to no end. One of the main initial reasoning for providing troops was to spread democratic values and support, but this had not been accomplished. This may have helped provide that in the short term, but the US military did not prevent the Taliban from attacking, only prolonged the terrorist takeover. 

Biden acknowledged that by not being able to give full control to the Afghan military and government, staying there was pointless. This war between terrorist groups had been going on for more than two decades, resulting in security dilemmas and a arms race between the two opposing groups, United States military forces and the Afghanistan government versus the Taliban. Grossman’s argument states that providing aid to the Afghani people does not necessarily need to result in a “win” per say, but while this is a more optimistic look on the crisis, staying in this fight is essentially costing too much and spending too many lives. How much more can America do if there is not end in sight? While some people may think it is important to help civilians (which I agree is important) the cost of it was too high for something that was not likely to result in a win-lose outcome. Grossman also argues that by leaving, there is always the chance that Americans will have no other choice but to provide protection and resources in Afghanistan again. In my opinion, the bargaining range for this is too high. Some of the resources provided were not’ utilized as they should have been, most likely due to the ineffectiveness and corruption of the Afghan government. It is better to leave and return than to stay for little reasoning. After the US backing plan had been declared, Afghan soldiers somewhat gave up on their own fight, which suggests that they had been relying too heavily on military support form US troops. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it simply provides more reason for the US to resign from their support because it may seem as they are fighting the battle for them. 

If you are looking at the war through merely an economic perspective, the cost to reward price was not enough. The capitalist peace trade shows how wars effect trade. The US does not get a large percentage of their oil from the Middle East, but having troops stationed there can hurt trade deals between the United States and Middle Eastern countries in the future. Most US citizens were in support of pulling back from this conflict and brining US soldiers home.