The Future of The War in Afghanistan: It's Decision Time

March 14^th, 2012

By June, the war going on in Afghanistan will have lasted 128 months. That’s almost 2 years longer than the Vietnam War, which ended after 103 months of fighting in 1973. At first, the focus of Operation Enduring Freedom was to retaliate against al-Qaeda for the attacks made against the United States on September 11th. On October 7th, 2001, thousands of soldiers set out to dismantle the Taliban terrorist group and prevent it from using Afghanistan as a home base.

Today, our country seems split on whether or not the War on Terror is indeed a fight still needed to be fought. After 11 years of conflict, many are asking themselves what is the purpose of this?

With the tragic shooting of 17 civilians by an un-named American soldier in Afghanistan, the world is shocked, and unforgiving. As much as the incident is horrific, what the American soldier did is one isolated event, and it pales in contrast by the many well-planned terrorist attacks on America, Afghanistan and the world. Regardless, the public is asking for answers, seeking a reason for this ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The information given to the public is often biased, leaving out key points and reasons behind the events we hear about on a monthly, if not weekly basis, in lieu of the sensationalized stories that spark uproar from the public. With the Quran burnings by NATO troops that happened in February, many don’t realize the full story behind these events. The Qurans belonged to Taliban prisoners who were writing in the sacred texts, secretly passing them back in forth to each other. Upon marring them, the copies then became defaced. The NATO troops burned the texts knowing that marking and writing in the Koran was blasphemous. There are always two sides to every story. The public deserves both, rather than a story willing to play up the Afghan outrage, and thus make our very own troops look bad.

In all accounts, the Afghanistan war has not been easy. With almost 1900 military casualties to date, those frequently caused by non-combat accidents or maneuvers, the cost of war is apparent. In comparison, the Iraq war which overlapped the Afghan fight has had almost 5,000 casualties resulting in the successful overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s rule. The costs are small by comparison to wars in the past, such as Vietnam, but devastating to the families of the loved ones who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Those who gave their lives to protect freedom will always be known to us as heroes and must never be forgotten, which only gives us more reason to make sure they did in any way, die in vain. We can't ignore the growing confusion and unrest that many Americans are facing as the Presidential election approaches in November. Republicans continue to criticize the President, demanding clear answers on what he plans to do in the less than 300 days of office Obama still has to serve.

The main thing to realize is we aren't just spinning in circles over there, in a never-ending battle. We have actually accomplished a lot of what we originally set out to do. In his speech at West Point in 2009, President Obama stated that, “the core of U.S. goals in Afghanistan: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaeda and its safe havens in Pakistan, and to prevent their return to Afghanistan.” The reason for this was to show that the United States was very much involved in pursuing justice for the innocent lives lost in the attacks of 9/11 and even more so those who have been lost due to fighting this War on Terror. According to the Project on Defense Alternatives, “The Taliban have been driven from power in Afghanistan, fragmented as a political force, and widely discredited as an ideological movement…[and] Al Qaeda infrastructure and operations in Afghanistan have been destroyed, a substantial proportion of their core cadre have been [abolished], and their capacity to act globally has been disrupted significantly -- although perhaps only temporarily.” The key point is not just seeking justice for the lost lives, as much as that is the main reason many who have joined to serve in the recent years, but it’s also about preventing any other attacks against innocent citizens not just in the US, but in the world.

It’s absolutely critical that the extremists willing to attack the United States are dismantled. The UN did a study and found out that nearly 76% of the civilian casualties in Afghanistan were made by the Taliban, and not foreign militia such as US troops. The Standard Weekly wisely pointed out, “…media outlets focus an enormous amount of energy on reporting the relatively few accidental deaths caused by Coalition forces, but put little emphasis on the deliberate murders inflicted on the Afghan people by the Taliban.” The military men and women, fighting right now, to protect freedom are not doing it for recognition but rather because they believe the Taliban and al-Qaeda must be stopped. And even though it seems like this war has dragged on forever, the costs have remained minimal at best in comparison to the almost 60,000 lives lost in Vietnam. The lives given in effort to stopping the spreading threat of al-Qaeda terrorists had produced a sense of security for not just those back home, but a glimmer of hope for the Afghan people, despite recent events. We mustn’t take for granted the sacrifices made in this almost 12 year war. But now it’s decision time. How much longer will foreign troops be deployed in Afghanistan? When former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates was asked this, he said it was “unpredictable” and “perhaps a few years.”

What the public wants is a solid timetable of withdrawal. But what most speculators don’t realize is a slow transition, not a complete pull out, will benefit us all the most. Leaving suddenly could only jeopardize the mission. Setting a solid timetable, available to the public, is dangerous. It gives the opposition a timetable as well, on us. In light of the current news stories splashed across the world, it comes down to this: Afghanistan must decide if they still wish to seek US help in overcoming the Taliban and al-Qaeda, or letting us pull out in a orderly, sequential manner.

Humbly,

P.S. I highly encourage reading from the included links marked in the text of this article. Thank you.

copyright Elizabeth Hottenstein, 2012.