Source: The New York Times
The economic principle I will explore is All choices have an opportunity cost. The question that will help me study this principle will be "What are the costs of the United States being in Afghanistan?"
The article titled, "It's time to get out of Afghanistan. Here's How," published by Fareed Zakaria and "End the War in Afghanistan," by the Editorial board of the New York Times shows the importance of this principle by describing how the United States has been severely impacted in the Afghanistan War financial and in a military manner.
For one thing, after spending 17 years in Afghanistan, the United States government has spent a massive amount of time and money in order to defeat the Taliban and restore peace to Afghanistan. Each year, Zakaria explains that we spend around $45 billion a year on both "security and economic aid for Afghanistan." Because of the excessive expenses, it has taken a huge part of our national debt, in which we are at around $22 trillion. Thus, the more money and aid we send to Afghanistan, the more the national debt will grow.
Another to consider is the vast number of American soldiers that are deployed and/or killed in this conflict. The Editorial Board of the New York Times briefly explain that around 7,000 service members were deployed in Afghanistan. Furthermore, around 53,700 soldiers return home "bearing physical wounds and numberless more carry psychological injuries." In result of deploying soldiers to fight in Afghanistan, more than 8,000 of them have been killed. Although with plans rolling along of slowing down the deployment of soldiers, this is a very difficult and long task to achieve.
In my next post, I will be discussing the following question: Has the war changed how the U.S. views itself in global issues and participation?
I found it really interesting on how much the war in Afghanistan has impacted the US because we only learn about the war itself such as the soldiers that were killed in action or how the war had impacted the people that live in Afghanistan. Maybe in the future blog post, you can write about how the US was doing once it got impacted with the national debt.
ReplyDeleteI found it really interesting on how much the war in Afghanistan has impacted the US because we only learn about the war itself such as the soldiers that were killed in action or how the war had impacted the people that live in Afghanistan. Maybe in the future blog post, you can write about how the US was doing once it got impacted with the national debt.
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