Do you ever stop and think – Wow, America has been at war for almost my entire life.
Not really?
You’re probably not alone. It’s almost like we forget.
It’s difficult to say exactly why we got involved in Afghanistan. It’s even harder to explain why we are still there. But it’s expensive… Not just in supplies but also in lives. So what’s the scoop? Why are we still there and why has it been so hard to leave?
WHY WE WENT IN:
Many of us may not even remember why we started this war in the first place. After all, millennials were about 10 years old at the time. This war has spread over THREE presidencies.
To get the answer, you have to go back to October 2001, with of course, George W. Bush as the President. Although we tend to think of him as America’s cuddly grandpa, painting watercolors and sharing them with Barrack Obama, we have to remember that we was pretty aggressive as President. We had already begun the war in Iraq (which, if you didn’t know, ended a few years ago). The tragedy of 9/11 had recently happened and the country, as a whole, was trying to decide how to feel. And Bush was dead-set on retaliation. The first announcements of military action in Afghanistan happened on Oct. 7 2001 and were directed at Al Qaeda training camps and the Taliban regime. So pretty much directly responding to 9/11.
As Donald Rumsfeld put it, we had plans to “just topple the Taliban and get out.” As it turns out, “just” toppling the Taliban was a little harder than expected.
WHY WE HAVEN’T LEFT:
Flash forward to now, the Taliban is still evading us and we realized, once you invade and disrupt a foreign nation… You’re kind of responsible for leaving them more stabilized after you leave.
The goal was always to get rid of the bad guys, stabilize, and leave Afghanistan a thriving Democracy.
It is worth noting, Barrack Obama is not a fan of war. He is probably the closest thing to a pacifist we have seen in a modern president. But even HE felt the war in Afghanistan was justified, deeming it a “war of necessity” because “those who attacked America in 9/11 are plotting to do so again.” So why are we STILL there? In short, we have not left because we have not accomplished our goals.
Afghanistan is still unstable, the Taliban are thriving, and there is no Democracy.
Main reasons for challenges are:
- The terrain
So look, going to Afghanistan is kind of like going to the moon for most of us. It’s a climate that we have never experienced. I have heard (especially through the podcast) just how grueling it can be to survive in the desert – think blistering sunburns, dust storms, constant thirst, dirty clothes, etc. But beyond that, there are tons of mountains, caves, and crazy terrain that we are just NOT familiar with… But the Taliban IS familiar with it. They know it like the back of their hand… And this is an advantage they’ve had since the get-go.
- Lack of trust from civilians
This kind of explains itself. We don’t have the everyday person’s trust in Afghanistan. Why? We probably killed their cousin, we are walking around with huge machine guns, we don’t speak their language, and oh yeah – we are a foreign invader that hasn’t accomplished much! This leads me to my next point –
- Enormous cultural divides/ misunderstanding
We struggle to bridge the cultural gap in Afghanistan. We are SO different from them. It takes a large investment of time, effort, compassion, etc. to try to learn a new language, understand Islam, get to know different tribes/ subcultures etc. And unfortunately… That’s time we just don’t have… Which leads me to my next point –
- The length of deployments
Unfortunately, while deployments probably seem SO long to those serving and their loved ones… given how long it takes to truly understand the terrain, climate, language, religion, cultural divides, tribes, etc., our guys are leaving RIGHT as they start to get a grasp on these concepts. This is not a smart investment of our time… Which leads me to my next point –
- Military not suited for diplomacy
Like, these men are trained to carry guns, fight the bad guys, etc. Why are they handing out crayons? It is tough because it’s hard to smoke out the Taliban without help from the locals. But the locals don’t really want to help us because they don’t really trust us. So in an effort to build that trust, we are handing out crayons. Ok, I am over simplifying it, but you get it. We are trying to have our military members serve as diplomats/ peace keepers… This is kind of the wrong message to be sending while they are also carrying out attacks, etc. We spend an enormous amount of time/ effort training these men/ women to FIGHT and instead they’re trying to do the opposite. Maybe we need to reevaluate who we are sending, how they’re trained, etc.
- Likely other items we do not know about as civilians
Dude, I am not going to pretend I know it all. I am just a civilian who has never served a DAY let alone in a war zone. I can’t pretend to imagine all of the layers of complication that are classified. I am sure there is so much we don’t understand as average Americans and I like to give our military leadership the benefit of the doubt where I can because I DO know, that we don’t know it all.
The concept of disrupting a whole nation for 15 years and leaving it worse than before is terrible symbolically and for our diplomatic relationships. But beyond that, we fear if we leave, we will be enabling terrorist growth-spurt… Pointing right in our direction. So, until we can fully wipe out the Taliban, it seems leaving would directly hurt us.
RESOURCES TO LEARN MORE:
A Forbes article about women’s role in the situation: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mahaatal/2012/10/05/if-theres-no-peace-in-afghanistan-its-women-who-will-suffer-most/#1483546468af
A Wall Street Journal article about Obama’s role: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB125054391631638123
A CNBC article about Trump’s activity in Afghanistan: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/21/trumps-new-afghanistan-strategy-is-likely-to-focus-on-counter-terrorism-efforts.html
But I cannot emphasize enough how, the first time I felt I really understood this war was listening to the podcast Serial season 2 about Beau Bergdahl. It’s a pretty intense story that was widely debated. Although I don’t really have much of an opinion about Beau’s story (I really can’t make up my mind honestly). this podcast gave me SO much NEEDED perspective on the war, what we are doing there, and how truly trapped/ useless we are.
The reason I say trapped is because we are damned if we do, damned if we don’t. On the one hand, we are wasting valuable resources (lives, money, supplies, time, energy, etc.) and not really accomplishing much. But if we leave, we are potentially putting ourselves at risk. It will certainly be interesting to see how Trump’s policies/ strategies regarding Afghanistan differ from Obama’s. You’d be hard-pressed to find two more different men, and yet, as of now… They had pretty similar approaches to this situation. Why? Because our hands are pretty tied. We are pretty trapped.
I say we are useless, because what are we really doing there? Yes, trying to get rid of the Taliban is a noble, amazing cause. One that the people of Afghanistan would probably love to see accomplished. But we suck at it… We have NOT been able to find and extinguish them in 15 years… When is it time to call it quits and admit that we are just not capable? That there are too many cultural, geographical, and intelligence obstacles? Trump is not one to give up, so I doubt that will happen under his reign… Only time will tell.
MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS:
The one thing I think we could be putting more effort into is training a separate league of mini-diplomats… Kind of like a US Peace Corps… Whose entire job would be trust building. They would be the ones handing out crayons, befriending locals, bridging cultural divides, building relationships, garnering trust. And THEN, let the military be the military. I think these are two separate jobs and that the locals are probably confused by military trying to do both. If I were them, I would find it hard to trust a guy with a HUGE gun handing out crayons! That feels contradictory. I think it is a very different type of person with the skillset to be a diplomat (learning foreign languages, appreciating local art, playing with children…) than the person operating an AK47. Occasionally, there are exceptional individuals who can do both! But it’s expecting a lot of our military men/women to be both nation builders AND fighters. Why not have both? That’s my two cents!
What do you think we should do? Do you have other insights? PLEASE SHARE IN COMMENTS BELOW!
x
Antigone