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Hi, Writingal here!
I'm writing this article to respond to the article by Octiwoman in the March
20th edition of the Times. I, too, have a position on the war in Iraq and what
we're doing there.
In her piece, Octiwoman mentioned that America is training the Iraqi army so
that they can defend themselves in the future. I think everyone needs reminding
of something like that this that happened a great many years ago. During the
Cold War, the Soviet Union, or U.S.S.R., invaded Afghanistan. In case any
Whyvillians aren't familiar with the Cold War situation, here's a brief
overview; the "Reader's Digest version," as my social studies teacher would say.
The Soviet Union was a Communist nation, meaning that the government controls
everything. I mean EVERYTHING. They decide who you marry, what your job is, and
just about every other detail of your life. One thing that Communists like to do
is try to take over the world. (Editor's Note: Is this really what Communism is?
We might want to look into this more carefully....)
Taking over the world was especially something the U.S.S.R. wanted to do, or at
least that's what many people in the U.S. feared. The U.S.S.R. was made up of
Russia and a good many of the little countries around it, including a lot of the
"stan" countries (Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, etc).
The Soviet Union, under several different Communist leaders, wanted to make the
entire world Communist. The United States despised Communism because they
believed it is the opposite of democracy, which is the kind of government we
have.
During the Cold War, no one really fought what is called a "hot war" where there
is actual fighting (Editor's Note: At least, not publicly). Mainly what happened
was that the United States and the Soviet Union, the world's two superpowers,
competed to see who could go up into space first and who had more nuclear
weapons and other stuff like that.
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, trying to take over, the United
States came to Afghanistan's aid simply because they hated the U.S.S.R. and
Communism. We went in there and taught Afghan rebels how to fight and we gave
them weapons.
And guess what?! One of those people that we taught all that stuff to was named
Osama bin Laden.
That's right, the same Osama bin Laden who the U.S. government believes made the
attacks on 9/11 happen!
The U.S. taught him a lot of things about how to fight a war and gave him
weapons and knowledge. This drives me crazy, thinking that is how he thanks us,
hijacking our planes and steering them into our World Trade Center.
What you all need to realize is, this supposedly "good thing" came back to haunt
America many years later. I think that if we train the Iraqi army to fight, this
too might not be such a good thing many years from now. I think that President
Bush should think twice before allowing this to happen.
These are just the opinions of one Whyvillian, but I'm really interested in this
current news topic and wanted to let my voice be heard.
Signing off,
Over and out to study for my sentence patterns test before my mom bugs me again,
Writingal
P.S. All of this information was obtained from my social studies teacher in 5th
period social studies class.
Editor's Note: Great article, Writingal, but I hope you'll ask your social
studies teacher to explain Communism to you again -- it appears she may not have
been especially clear on some very important points!
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