Perspective

     At about this time last year, I was confused about the United States’ role in world affairs, particularly in the Middle East. Like too many Americans, or anyone for that matter, I was especially uncertain why the U.S. had been waging a war in Afghanistan for more than ten years. I knew that it wasn’t about oil, because Afghanistan produces virtually no oil. I knew that it wasn’t about territorial disputes between nations either, because we were fighting Taliban rebels and Al Qaeda, not the Afghan government itself. Because of my relative ignorance, I opposed American military action in Afghanistan. I thought “We are so far away from West Asia, how does anything that happens there affect the United States?”

It wasn’t until I began studying international relations last fall when I realized that I was deprived of the information that would cause everything to make sense to me, that would cause me to obtain a proper perspective. I will concede that I didn’t seek the proper news sources that I should have. I read the San Jose Mercury, which is generally sensational local articles on the front page, filled with ads in the middle and sprinkled with Associated Press stories. I had quit watching television news because I felt that it was either not centered enough or, like my newspaper, had been sensationalized. I had forgotten about the News Hour.

I was brought out of the fog by the articles that my international relations teacher gave me. I started thinking like a global citizen and learned that nearly all nations are connected to each other in some way and any major event in any given country has the potential to cause a shockwave around the world. This made me see the conflict in Afghanistan in a different light. I began making the argument to people that the West Asian country is a haven for Al Qaeda, the group that ultimately conducted the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. I also argued that such terrorists are a major threat to the security of our allies. With the people who questioned our involvement with the Afghan government and supported complete unilateralism, I made the point that the government is going to need to be able to adopt a democracy and support its people in order to stop the growth of terrorist and rebel groups in Afghanistan. As a superpower, we truly are obligated to protect our allies, leading NATO forces to destroy any threats.

As soon as I learned more about why the United States was in Afghanistan and became able to analyze examples of military involvement such as these, I became ashamed of what I did not know before and of the fact that I didn’t seek the information that I should have. I do not agree with the direction in which mainstream news media is going, but I think that it is the responsibility of every well-educated individual who wants to express his opinion to find trustworthy, reliable news.

It seemed as if I came late to some great debate. By the time I knew what was going on, the Army, Marines, and Air Force were already packing up, getting ready to go home. Public sentiment had shifted dramatically in the negative direction, giving the military very little opportunity to right the wrong in terms of strategy and continue employing “small war” counterinsurgency tactics, which have only been used for a short time in Afghanistan. Even though I am just a student with a negligible amount of political pull, I feel as if I could have made a difference if I had developed a sense of perspective sooner.