Factors Going Into The Afghan War

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Introduction
Conflicts exist in all sizes. There are conflicts between neighbors about trees, there are conflicts between children about toys, there are conflicts between politicians about opinions, and there are conflicts between nations. A conflict, in essence, is a disagreement. Conflicts vary. Some are like the China/Norway conflict after a Chinese “criminal” got the Nobel Peace Prize thanks to his fight for democracy. China boycotts Norway in trading, while Norway doesn’t see the problem as the Nobel Committee is independent and not controlled by the state. Other conflicts are more serious, like the one between the U.S. and Afghanistan (Taliban). After 9/11, USA entered Afghanistan to find Osama bin Laden, whom Taliban was protecting. During the 12 years the war has lasted, it is estimated that at least 40.000 have been killed.
There are two types of conflicts, conflicts of value and conflicts of interest. Conflict of Value is a conflict where you fight because of lacking respect, because you want to liberate yourself or another country, maybe because the ongoing civil war is destroying the country and interfering can save lives. On the other hand, we have a conflict of interest, where the main goal is resources. Whether the resources in question are humans, money, food, whatever: it’s the selfish kind of conflict.
Most conflicts are both conflicts of interest and conflicts of value, and defining a conflict as only one of them is hard. In the Afghanistan war, one might claim that it is a conflict of value. But when studied, it reveals that there is an aspect of interest in the war too. The U.S. went into Afghanistan to free them of Taliban and to get hold of Osama bin Laden. There certainly were values here; freedom for the ...

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