Mackenzie Heard 7JYear 7 English 2011Issues Oral Presentation

• Introduction • Overall Issue• Contention• Audience

• Tone• Persuasive Techniques

• Conclusion

The title of the article that I have chose to analyse is:‘Is the Afghan campaign worth a further 42 Australian lives?’

This article was written by Hugh White and was published in The Age on Tuesday the 12th of July, 2011.

Style of ArticleThis article is a political opinion piece from The Age. Hugh White is very matter-of-fact and his opinion is very clear

throughout the article.

The overall issue of the article I have chosen is that to many young Australians are dying in Afghanistan and there are not enough results being achieved. Military officials and senior

members of the government are being criticised for keeping the troops in Afghanistan and sending the troops on more

hazardous operations. A question that is frequently raised in this article is whether the operations in Afghanistan have

delivered strategic results worth the lives of dozens of young Australian soldiers.

Throughout the article, Hugh White’s contention is very clear. He believes that too many young Australian soldiers are dying

in the war in Afghanistan. He also believes that the small progress being made in Afghanistan is not worth the lives of Australian soldiers. Gordon also believes that the significant rise in deaths of Aussie soldiers in Afghanistan is due to the fact the are being ordered to undertake riskier operations.

I think that the audience that this article is intended for is adults who are interested and want to know about the war

situations in Afghanistan. Other people who would be interested in the article are friends and family of soldiers who

are on duty in Afghanistan – they would be particularly interested in this article because it greatly affects them.

The tone of this article is:• Educated• Shocked• Alarmed• Annoyed

• Convincing• Matter-Of-Fact

Hugh White used lots of statistics to support his argument. A lot of these statistics related to the deaths of soldiers.

• He often made reference to the amount of soldiers that have died so far in Afghanistan.

• He said that that “…the rate at which soldiers have been dying has gone up almost eight-fold.”

• He also worked out an estimate of how many more Australian soldiers will die in the next 42 months.

Hugh White attacked the opposition many times in this article. In this case, the opposition was mostly senior members of the military and senior

members of the Australian government.

• Hugh White attacked senior members of the military by saying that they have been ordering soldiers to take more risks, hence the rise in deaths.

• He also attacked the senior members of the military and the government and made the rise in deaths primarily sound like there fault; Hugh White was blaming the deaths on them.

Throughout the article, Hugh White used rhetorical questions many times. Some of the questions include:

• Why is this happening?• Perhaps they are facing opposition?• How many would that be?• How many more months?• Even if we concede that what happens there matters much to Australia,

what are the chances of making a difference in Afghanistan from here on?

• Are the risks to these troops from the operations we are now conducting justified by any real prospect that Afghanistan will be any better off when we leave in 3 ½ years?

• And who is responsible for asking these questions and making these decisions ?

• Who could deny that those lives will have been squandered for no purpose?

This article was about the war in Afghanistan and that things need to change. The main argument in the article is that there are too many young Australian soldiers dying. He also believes that the lives of our soldiers in Afghanistan is not worth it for

the little progress being made in Afghanistan.;)