More than 50 people, including Dean of Students Rich Egley, attended an event held in Lundeen Hall featuring presentations from UW-Platteville faculty and staff, and Student Senate President Eli Caywood.

Students for Peace and Justice hosted an open forum Nov. 4 on U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.  David Krugler, David Rowley and Nancy Turner, all  associate professors of history, presented the history of Afghanistan starting with the build up to the Soviet invasion of the country in 1979. Caywood was in Afghanistan for 26 months, completing four deployments between 2003 and 2006. After the presentations, a question and answer session was held.

Devine Nzegwu, president of SPJ, moderated the forum. She opened the forum by introducing Rowley. Rowley presented on what he called, “the overreaction of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.”

In 1978, the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan, a Marxist group, took power. The Soviet Union backed the party and redistributed land, established a social welfare system and required that women go to school.

Rowley said that patriarchy was strong in the countryside, and led to a revolt. While this was not a great threat to the Soviet Union, the Soviets overreacted and invaded.

Rowley concluded his presentation by saying that according to documentation from after the fall of the Soviet Union, “The action [of the Soviets] was wholly defensive.”

Krugler spoke about U.S. policies in reaction to Afghanistan. The Carter Administration established the Carter Doctrine, which stated that any outside attempt to gain control of the Persian Gulf was a direct threat to the U.S.

Former President Ronald Reagan expanded covert operations in Afghanistan by giving them stinger missiles. Reagan’s policy was to get the Soviets out of Afghanistan by all means.

Turner presented on the beginning of the Taliban and al-Qaida. Turner said that the Soviet withdrawal created a hopeless power vacuum. This led to the creation of the Taliban by Mullah Muhammed Omar in 1989. Turner said that the Taliban’s stated goal was the creation of an Islamic state in Afghanistan.

In 1988, Osama bin Laden created al-Qaida who’s goal, Turner said, was to end to all foreign influence in Islamic countries.

Caywood then presented on his deployment in Afghanistan.

“It was our job to find bad guys and go kill them,” Caywood said. “Or arrest them if they were willing to cooperate.”

After Caywood’s presentation, the forum was opened to questions from the audience.

Mike Sharkey, an associate professor of philosophy, asked about the antipathy between Islam and Christianity.

“Americans need to realize, just like Christianity, Islam has lots of divisions,” Turner said. “There is a huge variation in Christian belief, likewise, there is a huge variation in Islamic belief. The problem in the Middle East is not really Islam.”

Dean of Students Rich Egley asked, “Where in our history do we find a largely unilateral restructuring of a country?”

Krugler said, “Roosevelt called for unconditional surrender in Japan and Germany. We are taking out your government and putting one in of our own fashion.”

Rowley said, “A fundamental difference is that Japan is a state that is very old. Afghanistan is not a state, it has never really been a state. If Afghanistan gets a state, it will be if someone builds it. I don’t think we can afford it.”