Trump and the Afghanistan War—OK, but…¶
President Donald Trump unveiled his plan for the War in Afghanistan that includes increasing troop levels, giving military leaders on the ground more control, and a new intensity for killing terrorists. The plan details were vague, but we know our mission is not nation building. More money will be spent (over a trillion and counting from most estimates), more lives will be lost (nearly 2,400 American troops), and there are no clear parameters for victory. Even so, I’ll back the strategy… for now.
Sixteen years since the events on 9/11, and the war machine keeps turning in Afghanistan. Three presidents have presided over the war efforts and there’s still no clear endgame that doesn’t involve the spread of terrorism or a stronger Taliban. I want to believe we can achieve some semblance of victory but the longer the conflict drags on, the more it reminds me of the second Iraq War, or Vietnam. We leave too early, we lose. We stay too long, we lose.
What would victory look like? Considering we are not engaged in conventional warfare, the only path I see is training Afghan troops and eventually drawing down our own troops, as we have been. But how long can this process take? Sixteen years… sixteen? And, what do we have to show for it? There are murmurings that we may meet with the Taliban. Yes, the Taliban! There’s a possible scenario where they still have considerable power even after we leave. I don’t want to speculate further on this until we see the results of this small surge.
What would defeat look like? Another failed state? Another terrorist haven? We have the greatest fighting force in the history of man. There’s no hill they couldn’t take and there’s no target they couldn’t destroy. However, prolonged wars with murky endgames undermine their abilities. Brave men and women willingly give their lives for their country. Let us not take that for granted.
So, I’ll back the president on this idea though I am highly skeptical that this plan will work in any meaningful way. But… if this surge doesn’t work, we need that endgame. Everyone knows our playbook by now. They won’t fight us on open battlefields. They want us using our resources, fighting indefinitely around the world, and we have done that. We are willingly bankrupting ourselves, defending places that—I’m sorry—are not vital.
I’ve always fought for small government, I argue against adding more pieces to the social safety net, and thus I must also be against the leveraging of our future for nation building experiments and needless wars. I’d rather our soldiers come home and die of old age, surrounded by family. Let us use our strength to create a lasting peace, at least until our hand is forced.