Hugh White argues that too many young Australian soldiers are dying in Afghanistan and the small amount of progress made is not worth their lives. He criticizes military and government officials for ordering riskier operations that have led to an eight-fold increase in deaths. White uses statistics on deaths, attacks the opposition, and asks rhetorical questions to convince readers that Australia should reconsider its strategy and commitment in Afghanistan.

1. Mackenzie Heard 7J
Year 7 English 2011
Issues Oral Presentation

2. • Introduction
• Overall Issue
• Contention
• Audience
• Tone
• Persuasive Techniques
• Conclusion

3. 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 Article
This 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. The tone of this article is:
• Educated
• Shocked
• Alarmed
• Annoyed
• Convincing
• Matter-Of-Fact

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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?

11. 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.
;)