As commander-in-chief, the president retains the ability to commit troops to action and maintain them in theater for up to 90 days without need for Congressional authorization. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, President Bush sent troops into Afghanistan and Iraq in support of the war on terror. This assignment will provide students an opportunity to investigate the arguments in support and in opposition to military involvement, evaluate Americans levels of support for the conflicts, and describe the global impact of this military intervention.

In this writing assignment, students will need to:

Outline the presidents (President Bush) justification for military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. Additionally, students should identify another U.S. government official who supported military intervention and their reasons for doing so.
Identify two U.S. government officials who disagreed with military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan (post-9/11) and their reasons for opposition.
Explain the impact of U.S. military intervention domestically (re: intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan post-9/11). Questions that should be answered in addressing this section include: Did the American public support intervention? Did the level of support change over time? Did these opinions result in any electoral shifts?
Describe the impact of U.S. military intervention on other countries (re: intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan post-9/11). Did the U.S. receive international support for our military intervention? Why or why not? Did our military intervention lead to regime changes? Describe them. What has been the impact of those regime changes?
Additional requirements for the writing assignment are as follows:

The essay must be a minimum of 750 words in length, typed, double-spaced and with one (1) inch margins on all sides. The font should be ten (10) or twelve (12) point Times New Roman or Ariel font. Longer papers are fine but shorter are not! Papers that have fewer than 750 words will not be graded. Headers and citations do not count toward the minimum word length requirement.
A proper MLA header should be used on the paper. Please refer to the grading rubric for the specific information about what should be included in the header. No title page should be utilized.
The paper should use MLA citation style for all citations. (Do not forget to properly cite and/or quote all material used in completing these essays in order to avoid violations of plagiarism rules.)
Students will need to include a minimum of three (3) outside sources for their writing assignment. The course textbook may be used as a source but does not count as one of the three (3) required sources. Students will be graded upon the type of sources used (meaning they need to be reputable sources) so please take care in selecting which sources to use. Internet sources are permitted, but again, they should be limited to reputable sources. Students who have questions about which sources are and are not appropriate need to consult with the professor. As a note of caution, Wikipedia and Think Quest are not appropriate sources and should not be used in completing this essay assignment. Encyclopedias and dictionaries should not be used as sources either.