Ww1 Vs Afghan War

War is an experience nobody likes or would want to take part it if it wasn’t needed to protect their country. Knowing the things you’re going to have to do and living your life with all the blood on your hands. Over the years war has changed in many ways keeping some classic war fundamentals.

World War 1 began on July 28th 1914 when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The small looking conflict rapidly spread drawing attention towards Germany, Russian, Great Britain and France due to their current involvements. “That killed more Europeans than any event since the Black Death” (Overview of the World, P.4). The Afghanistan War started soon after the 9/11 terrorist attack. The war involved the United States invading Afghanistan targeting Taliban and Al Qaeda forces with the support of close allies. “The US-led military intervention in Afghanistan of October 2001 occurred while the drought was still gripping the country” The experiences of soldiers on the front lines in WW1 and Afghanistan have very similar war fundamentals but there’s a huge difference when it comes to the evolution of technology.

A common theme that is shown in many of the primary sources such as the war diary by Tim and the images from both WW1 and the afghan war is PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychological response to the experience of intense traumatic events, particularly those that threaten life. In the diary Tim states that he suffers from PTSD and from the photos of the war you can see what the soldiers are going through. Common symptoms are usually memories, images, smells, sounds and feelings. Reliving the traumatic experiences over and over, having flashbacks to the war, all the blood and screams. Watching their own friends die next to them is probably the worst thing anyone could live with.

Another relevant theme that’s displayed within the primary sources is friendship and relations. When going to war you’re putting your life on the line and you can’t be certain that you’ll return home safely to your friends and family. Every moment on the battle field soldiers are probably thinking of their loved ones and how they must return home to see them again. Other relationships can be made within the arm forces. Soldiers can lose their friends during the war, as mentioned previously witnessing your friend being shot or killed must be absolutely terrifying.

I chose to use a qualitative approach to conduct my research and compare my sources. By observing the sources provided I was able to compare common themes that were shown. A limitation to this research method is that I may simply lack requisite influence and that randomized experiments would violate ethical standards.

Both the experiences of being on the front lines of WW1 and the Afghanistan war have similarities and differences. The fundaments are the same, the war began and ended with massed infantry assaults, it also introduced the fundamentals of modern war. We now fight in smaller teams of four to five soldiers which was introduced by the Germans, instead of a complete army. ”A daily routine in the military is very organized” (Source #7). Due to the groups being much smaller you can talk and really get to know some of the soldiers and even make friends, which was different from how it use to be back in WW1. But consequences come with making friends when at war, “My last memory of Rick Green is putting our cards inside a box because we didn’t finish the game. That’s what I came back to — an unfinished cribbage game. I talked to Marc Leger six minutes before he died. It was a pretty tough day”. (Source #5)

A similarity between WW1 and the Afghan War is the attitude of the soldiers, during WW1 everyone was gung-ho and excited to go fight for their country. However nowadays, people know the consequences and traumatic experiences

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