I have become a veritable Cassandra with my warnings about the folly of America’s involvement in Afghanistan. Instead of wondering why I keep beating this dead horse, however, my only wonder is why more people aren’t doing the same…
Hell, even the recent spate of U.S. soldiers being killed by the Afghans they’re supposedly training to kill Taliban fighters has done nothing to incite national outrage.
(“Another Sign of America’s Lost Cause in Afghanistan,” The iPINIONS Journal, March 29, 2012)
Alas, yet another trainee with the Afghan security forces decided on Tuesday that he’d rather kill his American trainers than have them train him to kill his fellow Afghans – even if they are Taliban.
The U.S. general who was shot and killed in an apparent insider attack in Kabul on Tuesday had served in the American military for more than three decades and was a key player in the current U.S. effort to stand up Afghan security forces.
Army Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene of Falls Church, Va., was the highest-ranking member of the U.S. military to die in the line of duty since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He was the deputy commanding general for the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan and was making a routine visit to a training facility when he was fatally shot.
(Washington Post, August 5, 2014)
As my opening quote indicates, I’m tired of not only lamenting but also presaging the tragic folly of the United States trying to build an Afghanistan that can “govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself.”
This is why I felt nothing but indignation at the media handwringing that attended news of this latest “green-on-blue” shooting rampage. And I stress the word rampage because, listening to and reading news reports, you could be forgiven for thinking this U.S. general was the only victim. Whereas, in fact, the gunman opened fire on a gathering of NATO soldiers, wounding 15, including eight Americans, two British, and one German, as well as four Afghans.
It is noteworthy, however, that Rt. Gen. Barry McCaffrey provided only a whisper of serenity amidst the cacophony of media comments, when he had the courage to say the following on the August 6 edition of Morning Joe on MSNBC:
Remember, this comes on top of 22,000-plus killed or wounded in Afghanistan… We’re only talking about the ones that result in U.S. killed by the insider attacks [but] there are many more than this actually occurring. There’s a huge chasm of trust opening up between the Afghan security forces and the NATO forces.
We have to rethink that policy [of training Afghan security forces]….
Amen.
But instead of conjuring up new ways of expressing my indication, I shall suffice to reprise “U.S. Leaving Afghanistan. No Shit!” July 9, 2013, in which I warned of the senseless sacrifice this U.S. general has now made with his life.
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The United States is considering pulling out all its troops from Afghanistan next year, U.S. officials said, amid tension between the President Barack Obama’s Administration and Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government.
(Reuters, July 9, 2013)
I am pleased to see President Obama finally coming to his senses. But this raises the question: what has he accomplished by surging more troops into Afghanistan three years ago, instead of doing back then what he’s considering now?
After all, some of us warned that he was just putting the blood of more American soldiers on his hands:
America’s legacy there will be distinguished either by a terminally wounded national pride as American forces beat a hasty retreat in defeat (following the Russian precedent in Afghanistan), or by thousands of American soldiers being lost in Afghanistan’s ‘graveyard of empires’ as they continue fighting this unwinnable war (following America’s own precedent in Vietnam). More troops only mean more sitting ducks for Taliban fighters…
Obama would be well-advised to cut America’s losses and run ASAP; let the Afghans govern themselves however they like; and rely on Special Forces and aerial drones to ‘disrupt and dismantle’ Taliban and al-Qaeda operations there.
(“‘Without (or Even With) More Forces, Failure in Afghanistan Is Likely,’” The iPINIONS Journal, September 23, 2009)
There have been 2,083 American deaths in Afghanistan since 2001. But almost 70 percent of those deaths occurred not on George W. Bush’s watch, but on Obama’s. Why Obama, why?
I do not see how Obama can possibly justify the loss of life and waste of money that will occur over this period just for him to end up doing what President Nixon did in Vietnam: i.e., declaring victory and going home….
(“Obama Escalates Afghan War; the ‘Die’ Is Cast on His Presidency,” The iPINIONS Journal, December 2, 2009)
Enough said?
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Except that, there has been so much harping about this being the first general killed in action since the Vietnam War, you’d think his death represents a greater loss than the thousands of foot soldiers who have died in the killing fields of Afghanistan over the past 13 years. All the same, I hope his death will give his surviving colleagues pause before recommending U.S. military (mis)adventures in the future. But, just in case, reinstate the Draft!
I am merely proffering the morally imperative and self-evident truth that politicians would be more circumspect about sending Americans to war if their loved ones were obligated to serve.
Meanwhile, generals are complaining that they do not have enough troops to execute their missions; volunteers are being forced to endure extended tours of duty; and recruitment is so anemic that the military is lowering its (physical and educational) standards for enlistment to fill its ranks (promoting 42-year-old mothers as lean, mean fighting machines?).
(“Support the Draft to Prevent Stupid Wars,” The iPINIONS Journal, March 14, 2007)
NOTE: Obama makes quite a show of proclaiming his intent to withdraw all troops by the end of this year. Except that he’s now sending withdrawn troops back into Iraq to combat Daesh terrorists. Which is why you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s only a matter of time before he’s sending withdrawn troops back into Afghanistan to prevent Taliban fighters from committing even worse atrocities and reclaiming even more territory in Afghanistan than Daesh terrorists are doing in Iraq/Syria.
Related commentaries:
Lost cause in Afghanistan…
U.S. leaving Afghanistan…
Support the draft…