Everyone remembers where they were on 9/11, even though some underclassmen may have only been in kindergarten or pre-school at the time. In the panicked aftermath, the U.S. government and the Bush administration began to wage war upon Afghanistan and Iraq for reasons that were questionable and difficult to justify.
But now, as humanitarian and military crises are developing in different areas of the world, the U.S. cannot be fearful of another Iraqi conflict while allowing thousands of innocent people to die.
President Bush was granted the Authority to Use Military Force on Sept. 18th, 2001 against those who contributed to the 9/11 attacks, and we’ve had American Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan ever since. Saddam Hussein was a monster, and perhaps the only truly good result to come out of those ongoing conflicts was the removal of his despotic rule.
But was it really worth it? Over 4,000 American soldiers, over a million Iraqis and countless Afghans are all dead in over a decade. Our generation wasn’t supposed to have a Vietnam — our parents were supposed to learn from the mistakes made in the '60s and '70s.
But here we are, still trying to pull out Americans from an endless and unwinnable war.
As a new generation, we have learned our lessons from Iraq, but these lessons will be difficult to apply in the near future. Since the beginning of the conflict, 6,116 people have died in Ukraine. In Africa, a radical Islamic military group known as Boko Haram has killed thousands of people, waging war and destruction upon impoverished citizens, who are now forced to look to the Nigerian military (who are not much less abusive than Boko Haram themselves) as their saviors. And in the wake of al-QaIda, a new, more radical Islamic military force known as the Islamic State has risen.
The United States sent 300 troops to act as advisers to Ukrainian nationalist forces, but we have stood strong with our hands off approach to ISIS and have barely acknowledged Boko Haram as an issue. The U.S. is falling into the same mistake of choosing the wrong conflict to enter. The Ukrainian conflict has its roots in the Soviet Union and is largely based on a question of national heritage (which Ukraine is lacking). Yet, there is a legitimate humanitarian crisis in Nigeria that we are choosing to ignore.
Remember #BringBackOurGirls? Not one schoolgirl has been rescued. The genocide in Nigeria must be stopped for the good of humanity. As Boko Haram as sworn allegiance to ISIS, it would make the most sense to aid the Nigerian people living in terror of Boko Haram and simultaneously deal a blow to the international strength of the Islamic State.
Moving into the future, we as a nation must be smart about the conflicts we choose to enter. But that does not entail allowing innocents to die, as they are at the hands of Boko Haram in Nigeria. Rather than getting intertwined in a Ukrainian/Russian conflict that has no tie to the U.S., we should be protecting those who cannot protect themselves.