Afghanistan War Research Paper

On September 11, 2001, at 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City (9/11 Attack, 2010). This attack later deemed as a terrorist interaction with the United States was said to be the malicious works of the Al-Qaeda (a Muslim based terrorist organization). Within hours of the attack, some 3,000 people were confirmed to be dead and word had gotten around the globe that the Trade Center had collapsed by forceful means. This was the ignition to why Canada had to fight alongside the United States of America under NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and other countries in the otherwise “pointless” war known as the Afghanistan war. In other words, the involvement
of Canada in the Afghanistan war isn’t worth the “costs” that it had taken to join it in the first place.

The Afghanistan war opened the door to several negative pathways including the debt of society’s money spent on the war, a number of casualties Canadian soldiers had to face and lastly, the overall lasting effects of the Afghanistan war. Canadians troops were officially authorized to deploy in Afghanistan shortly after the attack in late October 2001. During this time, Minister of National Defense Art Eggleton told Governor General Adrienne Clarkson to allow Canadian forces to help alongside the U.S in Afghanistan. However, he would later know that this idea of granting Canadians the ability to fight under a private organization with other countries would lead to many disastrous occasions both physically and politically. For instance, the idea of Canada fighting against a corrupt, third world country should have been a dead giveaway that the opposing party would go to extreme extents to prove what they believe is right. In the same way, Canada should have realized that by spending money on military grade weapons, Afghanistan would have no trouble finding the money or manpower to match their efforts and thus, making it more problematic for Canada to lead their operations to victory. The birthplace of the Taliban, also known as Kandahar, is the 2nd largest city in Afghanistan and possibly the most corrupt one at it. This was the initial deployment for Canadian troops and relates back to why the Afghanistan war wasn't worth it because they tried to rehabilitate a corrupt city only to realize that they made it worse after scattering tons of disguised Canadian military men/women across one of the most dangerous cities in Afghanistan. Also, Canadians not involved in the war (i.e. Canadian taxpayers) had to undergo several tax cuts and limited income during the course of the war because the government had to pay for the military costs for the armed forces as well as necessities such as food. Although this wasn't the prominent reason to why the war was a misuse of the Canadian army, several years went by without any real improvement to fix the country's malfeasance even with the finances that Canada had provided. All in all, one can say that the money spent on the operation could have been used on something else (eg. education, food for the homeless,etc.) where the results could have been immediate and not delayed.

When a country declares war on one another, it is important to look at several aspects. For example, the geography of the country and possibly the history of the country's previous wars. To illustrate this thought, one can refer to the map of the world and see that Afghanistan is surrounded by many third world countries and with even more research; one can also say that Afghanistan was/is involved in over fifteen wars based on a separated timeline. Now this being said, it concludes that Afghanistan has previous war experience with many countries and has even brought some of its surrounding countries such as Pakistan to its support. Hence, one can see that the same can easily be done in relation to the Afghanistan war and that Canada will have more than a few countries to worry about. As mentioned earlier, the countries surrounding Afghanistan are mainly third world ones meaning that they will have no problem joining the war as well. In 2002, levels of education, infrastructure and respect for human rights are all extremely low in these countries and the Taliban recruited guerrillas who were independent armed forces that fight against government forces (Canada the nation it is today 158). This being said, these surrounding countries also have many similar motives as Afghanistan does, meaning that it will make it easier for them to find a reason to join the war. One such motive is to cause terror by performing various means of destruction often involving explosive substances. These explosive devices known as IEDs (improvised explosive devices) were placed on land as mines or even strapped onto people for an attack also called as “suicide bombing”. Many of these attack tactics executed by the Afghan forces were shared amongst other terrorist organizations including Al- Qaeda to leave an overall devastating effect on the Canadian army. To put it in numbers, over 200 Canadians identified as either military and/or reporters, were reported missing or dead over the course of the war. This can not be undone by anyone and the fact that over 200 Canadian families will be forced to say goodbye to their loved ones is something that one can not endure.

Nearing the end of the war in 2011, many Canadians were pondering whether or not the war was worth the overall costs. Some said that by Canada protruding Afghanistan and fixing the corrupt government, many positive things were changed in a land that “never heard of justice”. For example, a recent poll found that a total difference of 6.7 million students now go to school (2014) in comparison to the start of the war (2001) (Canada the nation it is today 159). Similarly, 39 percent of the students are girls which was considered unacceptable by the Afghanistan government because they had created a law in 2009 saying that a majority of the women living there, had to be “controlled” by their husbands. Needless to say, most of Afghanistan’s corrupted areas were changed into ones that had potential and can support a healthy government which was probably because of the 3000 percent increase in size of the Afghan security forces(Canada the nation it is today 159). This increase can control the government from creating unjust laws and protect the people from any “impromptu” military attacks. When asked about the effectiveness of the war to the general population in Ottawa, 30 percent of the respondents thought the mission was worth it, while 58 percent did not (Canada the nation it is today 159). These results could have been because of the total monetary costs needed in the war which totaled to $22 billion dollars or because of the “unnecessary” human casualties. These two reasons outrule the other positive ones because losing something to get another thing is never a win-win situation.

In conclusion, when looking at the statistics of Canada’s role in the Afghanistan war, one can say that there are some positive outcomes along with some negative outcomes.
When Al-Qaeda crashed several Boeing 767’s into the World Trade Center on 2001, they should have knew that they would cause an international war. Terrorism can never be justified and neither can the deaths of many people caused by a few people’s greedy and selfish thoughts. Anything that can be prevented for the better cause, could and should, be prevented from the first place. If this could have been prevented then maybe the debt of society’s money spent on the war, a number of casualties Canadian soldiers had to face and the overall negative lasting effects of the Afghanistan war could have been avoided. Overall, by looking at the negative atrocities caused by the selfish thoughts of a terrorist organization, one can see that blood will have blood and an eye for an eye, will just make the whole world
blind.