I hope Professor Sweetman does not take any offense to what I am about to say because I do respect his ideas and beliefs. Last Wednesday Professor Sweetman told the class that his beliefs on military actions in foreign policy were that he did not agree with them and felt it was the wrong way to handle our foreign problems. He said that he believed that the United States military should not have gone into Afghanistan after the September 11th attacks on America. His belief was that we should not use military action but be able to compromise and also find the ones responsible for the attacks, such as those who helped pay for it and helped train them. He believes that we would be able to bring those to justice by capturing them and bringing them to the world court and have them brought to justice. This is a very insightful way of handling things because he believes that no one will be killed in the process.
First off I would like to say, once again, that I respect Mr. Sweetman’s beliefs and ideas on this issue. Me personally, I believe that we as a country need a military to do the actions of foreign policy. I feel that the military would need to intervene with all the times that force by others comes up within foreign policy. I personally feel that the United States did the right thing by using our military to take care of business in Afghanistan after the attacks of September 11th. I feel that the terrorists do not want to listen to us and would not be willing to negotiate. I feel any way you handle the people responsible in Afghanistan you would have to use military action because it is needed to even capture those who are guilty of the 9-11 attacks.
I enjoyed Professor Sweetman discussing his beliefs and ideas with me and the rest of the class. I had fun hearing about his stories and hope he will do more of that in the near future. I would like to hear what other peers from the class feel about this subject that was brought up in class.
July 14, 2008 at 5:23 pm
I agree with you that after watching all the documentarties, and reading many articles about the intelligence we had after 9/11 that at the time, President Bush made the right choice to invade. Professor Sweetman was telling us how important it was to understand what information was presented at the time of the decision and not to let the knowledge we know now alter our perception of the invasion. I find it interesting and really helpful to understand others views on the war, thanks for sharing how you feel!
July 19, 2008 at 4:26 am
I found it interesting Professor Sweetmans beliefs. I can agree with him looking at it from a peaceful perspective. In another situation always finding the 5 W’s and trying to talk about it would be great. But when we are dealing with terrorists, I feel that talking will not solve the problem. So I do agree with the military action that was taken.