Editorial: Reassessing the war in Afghanistan – Concord Monitor
At 16 years, the war in Afghanistan is the longest war in American history, but it is a largely forgotten war.
There was virtually no mention of Afghanistan during the presidential campaign by either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. The war resurfaced in Americas consciousness briefly when U.S. forces dropped the Mother of All Bombs in April on a bunker suspected of harboring ISIS fighters, but Afghanistan quickly vanished in the chaos of news emanating from the Trump White House.
Trumps tantrums, antics and constitutional violations will continue to hold the stage, but amid the swirl and talk of Watergate and impeachment came the news that the president is amenable to the militarys request to send an additional 3,000 to 5,000 American troops to Afghanistan to assist the 8,400 or so already serving there with Afghani forces.
Hundreds of New Hampshire residents, including many National Guard members, have served in Afghanistan. As of today, 15 Granite State residents are listed as having been killed during Operation Enduring Freedom, the code name for the U.S. effort in Afghanistan. Another 72 were wounded in action.
Statistics like that, which are a tiny fraction of overall losses that include innocent Afghanis, give special urgency to the call by Concord resident, West Point graduate and Afghan war veteran Dan Vallone for Congress to debate the nations policy in Afghanistan before additional troops are committed.
Vallone, in a piece that appeared in these pages last week, wants Congress, if it decides further troops are worth putting at risk, to issue a formal Authorization for the Use of Military Force, a step short of a declaration of war.
For years, Congress has ducked its responsibility to determine military and foreign policy, which in a democracy should not be left to its chief executive and military leaders.
Gen. John Nicholson, the chief commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, calls the current situation a stalemate. That may be optimistic. The Taliban and its jihadist forces have increased the amount of territory they control and the Afghan government, which is led by a president and chief executive from rival parties, remains corrupt and marginally functional. The Afghan army, while much improved, is plagued by desertions and is said to be heavily infiltrated by Taliban members.
Past commitments of additional American troops, including the 26,000 sent in the 2009 surge under President Obama, led to only temporary improvements. Theres little reason to believe that sending one-fifth as many now will be any more successful. Its not for nothing that Afghanistan is called the graveyard of empires. The British failed (three times) to conquer its tribal fighters as did the Soviet Union and, after 16 years of trying, the United States.
If America abandons its efforts in Afghanistan, that country could again become a refuge for extremists intent on attacking the West. But its also possible that continued American presence is creating, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, more terrorists than the war effort is killing.
Is there a step short of abandoning Afghanistan that could help prevent that? A more intense effort to help Afghanistan and its rival leaders learn to cooperate and govern for the good of their people rather than their own and their relatives pockets would help. So would an increased effort to assist the people of that nation, especially its oppressed girls and women.
Any solution will be political, not military.
We urge the members of New Hampshires congressional delegation to read Vallones piece and insist that an Authorization for the Use of Military Force be debated. Otherwise, this nation will continue to blunder along, and more lives and money that could be put to better use will be wasted.
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Editorial: Reassessing the war in Afghanistan - Concord Monitor