Doubting and Believing : CNN op ed "Why Afghanistan needs US" by Peter Bergen

David Daou                                                                                                                                   Daou 1
Professor Adra
English 203
21 October 2012
       In this text, the author , Peter Bergen , praises Obama's decision to prolong military occupation in Afghanistan. What he fails to mention , is the fact that Afghanistan wouldn't have needed any kind of military help if during Ronald Reagan's presidency , the Mujahideen group (now the Taliban) hadn't been armed by the US to fight against the soviets who invaded the country to keep a dictator in power.The soviets' motive weren't innocent , of course , but arming extremists to such an extent that 30 years later, repercussions of these acts can still be felt, spreading around the region, like an epidemic. Peter Bergen also denies the fact that by extending occupation the US' imperialism spreads further, making Afghanistan a puppet state like Batista's Cuba or Pinochet's Chile (Bergen, par 3). Bergen relies on statistics to prove that the afghan people is favorable to occupation:
                           Third,  an overwhelming 92% of Afghans prefer the current government to the Taliban,                        according to a    poll taken   earlier this year. In other words, not only is the United                              States on the right side of history in supporting the Afghan government against the                              Taliban, the Afghan people also overwhelmingly support this.(Bergen , par 7).
Is one poll enough of a reason to extend occupation? Didn't we see something similar when Bush declared that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction , and then , war happened, weakening Iraq and making it more vulnerable and destitute.
       However , Bergen has a point, about occupation, and the Talibans' history of violence , occupation shouldn't work exclusively with the US army . Instead , occupation should be done by the UN , or by an international organisation who won't be tempted by the lucrative opportunities in Afghanistan and whose only job is furthering the afghan people's interests and not the US'. Bergen is also right about the danger ISIS is becoming to the whole region and which is a good enough reason to keep an experimented military force out there to keep an eye out for the instabilities the Middle East is going through.

                                                                                                                                                       Daou 2

Works Cited.

Bergen, Peter . "Sanity prevails on U.S. troops in Afghanistan" CNN ,October 15, 2015.