Vietnam 2.0 — Time to Cut Losses and Withdraw from Afghanistan
More than 17 years ago, the world saw the American superpower, shaken to its core. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks carried out by Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, the United States would unknowingly embark on its longest and one of the most expensive military conflict to date.
With the support of most Americans, George W. Bush announced his war on terror. On October 7, 2001, with the goal of capturing Osama bin Laden and dismantling the Taliban and Al Qaeda — which controlled most of Afghanistan territory — Operation Enduring Freedom began.
Almost two decades later, U.S. troops still occupy Afghanistan with over 14,000 American soldiers currently deployed, according U.S. defense officials. Over 2,000 U.S. military casualties, $1 trillion spent, and thousands more civilian deaths have brought the war to a stalemate with no end in sight.
Although the Taliban had been toppled, momentarily, and bin Laden eradicated, the U.S. is still in an open-ended war that have left many to question why we are still fighting.
In a conflict that eerily resembles the failed efforts of the Vietnam war, Americans must now realize that we have reached a point of no return.
In the past, Donald Trump has called to end the war, however the U.S. beefed up the number of boots on the ground in 2017. The president has again urged his discontent towards the long war and vowed that the U.S. would begin withdrawing troops by the summer. If Trump follows through with this promise, it could be one of the seldom-wise foreign policy decisions he has made.
In recent months, U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been leading peace talks, meeting with representatives of the Taliban including tribal elders and five former prisoners of Guantanamo Bay. These meetings have been held without representation from the Afghan government, including president Ashraf Ghani.
While the idea of negotiating with terrorists may be alarming, the the government in the capital city of Kabul is unstable — and it has been for decades — before and after Taliban rule. Following the temporary take down of the Taliban in the early 2000’s, the weak and corrupt government has left many Afghans uncertain about who to trust.
With President Ghani furious about being sidelined from the peace negotiations between the Taliban and U.S. diplomats, Afghanistan is in the same position it was before U.S. occupancy.
Afghanistan has been plagued by conflict for decades. The Soviet Union unsuccessfully invaded the country in the late 1970’s, and withdrew nearly a decade later. A ruthless civil war erupted during most of the 1990’s until 1996 when the Taliban took control of the government, establishing a rigid system of Shari’a law.
Instability and constant fighting have shown that any further U.S. intervention would be fruitless in establishing a democracy any time soon.
Today, the Taliban control most Afghan territories outside Kabul and have a stronghold on the government. Although many argue that a troop withdraw would bring the country right back to where it was pre-9/11, Khalilzad and Taliban representatives have agreed on the principle that Afghanistan would not harbor terrorist groups if the U.S. withdraw.
Though many are doubtful that the organization that once harbored the very terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks will be true to their promises, it should be noted that if the Taliban were to break their promise, the U.S. would likely retaliate accordingly.
While some argue that America should remain the chief peacekeeper of the world, this war has reached a point of no return and far too many lives have been lost in a war that was initially launched to dismantle Osama bin Laden. It is unclear to many American civilians what the purpose is of remaining in Afghanistan.
The U.S. is now negotiating with the same group it sought to destroy which indicates that any further military action would be an effort in futility. “The most significant indicator of a war gone badly awry is this: The U.S. has now quietly opened negotiations with the enemy,“ said historian Andrew J. Bacevich.
Peacekeeping efforts can only last so long before a country must reevaluate its objective and consider the lives of their own soldiers before continuing to fight a war in which victory seems far fetched.
Prior to the U.S. invasion, lone congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) voted against the decision to go to war with Afghanistan. She warned that entering without a clear objective in an open-ended war was dangerous, emphasizing the similarities of uncertainty prior to the Vietnam war.
We are now seeing Lee’s caveats become a reality. 18 years and $1 trillion wasted later.
Lee understood that history tends to repeat itself, and if that’s the case, we may have not seen the last of our days fighting in Afghanistan, but for now, the war is lost, it is time to end the conflict and direct our attention to protecting the security of America from within.
