Will the United States Longest War in Afghanistan End?
The name of Afghanistan is associated with war, terrorists, and Al-Qaida, and the name became hot topic on international media after 19 attackers and members of Al-Qaida that hijacked commercials and conducted the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacked that claimed 3,000 innocent lives and injured 25,000. Osama Bin Ladin, the leader of Al-Qaida took responsibility for the attack who was then living in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Taliban was ruling the country government with control of over 90% of the territory. After Taliban rejected to hand Osama Bin Laden to the United States for carrying attacks on 9/11/2001, and the United States, UK, and NATO allies started airstrikes on October 07, 2001. President Bush started the war on terrorism to eradicate Al-Qaida, and its leadership that was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Moreover, the U.S. was leading the “Operation Enduring Freedom” to destroy terrorist & associated groups, terrorists safe heaves, and to dismantle Taliban government in Afghanistan under the name of “War on Terror”. (Blank, 721) After billions of American taxpayer’s dollars are spent, thousands of American lives are lost, and lives of millions people are affected by losing their loved ones, the last three United States Presidents have failed to deliver their promises to American people to end the war and safely return brave men and women in uniforms home.
President Bush waged the “war on terror” under name of “Operation Enduring Freedom” or OEF to defeat Al-Qaeda and its leadership, dismantle terrorist safe havens, topple Taliban regime and replace it with legitimate government that have its own military to fight. According to the reports that U.S. spent one trillion dollars on war in Afghanistan which second largest the United States spending on war after the World War II. (Amadeo, 2020) The United States was successful of achieving the intended goals of OEF; Al-Qaeda was defeated, Osama Bin Laden was killed, Taliban regime was changed with a democratic functioning government, Afghanistan has 320,000 Afghan National Security Forces that take the responsibility of the country. (The White House, 2016) The U.S. and NATO allies are still engaged an endless war and failed to determine a timeline to withdraw their forces from Afghanistan.
Moreover, President Obama deployed 30,000 additional troops and the total number of the US forces increased to 100,000 by December 2009. (McCrisken, 996) The reason behind of additional forces was to get rid of Taliban and terrorists and clear the country from these terrorists and its associates. According to the Whitehouse archives, President Obama’s plan and projection, the US troops withdrawal will start in 2014 and number will reduce to 8,400 by end of his presidency, and the US troops will change to train and advisory role. Afghan Security Forces will be replacing the US troops and assuming the security of their country. (Garunay, 2016)
During 2016 U.S. Presidential Election campaign, then Mr. Trump claimed that he would end the longest war of American history and return the U.S. troops home and criticized former administrations for failing to do so. After being elected, President Trump realized that decisions are much hard and different when sitting in the Oval office. (Julie et all) Therefore, President Trump supported Afghanistan mission rather stop funding the war and withdraw the US troops which was opposite of what promised during his political campaign rallies. At the end of February 2020, the Trump administration has been successful in signing a peace deal between the U.S. and Taliban in hope to end the war in Afghanistan after 2,400 Americans killed in the war. According to the peace deal, the U.S. will reduce its forces to 8,600 within 135 days of signing the deal. (BBC, 2020) The New York Times paper says that “ U.S. May Scale Back C.I.A. Presence” which means that if the U.S. troops leave Afghanistan, the number of C.I.A. operatives may increase which is same thing the U.S. will be still involve in never ending Afghanistan war. (Gibbons-Neff and Barnes, 2020)
In the first year of the President Trump’s administration, President Trump announced a strategy for Afghanistan and South Asia where he emphasized on setting conditions for the Afghan peace negotiations with Taliban by pressuring Pakistan to cooperate. Furthermore, President Trump talked about withdrawal of the US troops because the endless war has been an expensive one. (Garamone, 2017) The U.S. and allies’ forces have been in Afghanistan for almost 19 years with uncertain future. The strategy believed to be successful to preserve the US achievements of 19 years and end the war through a political settlement rather than a military option that hasn’t worked out. The achievement couldn’t be ignored that were earned through sacrifices and high costs. As President Obama said once that “the only way to end this conflict and to achieve a full drawdown of foreign forces from Afghanistan is through a lasting political settlement between the Afghan government and the Taliban.” (The White House, 2016)
Studying both former President Obama and President Trump’s strategies, they both have things on common and both strategies were focused on ending the war, withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan and asking for regional cooperation in peace and security of Afghanistan. Especially Pakistan’s cooperation with the United States can make the strategies successful because Pakistan provides safe havens for Taliban leadership and other terrorists. Both strategies highlighted the importance role Pakistan can play in bringing peace and security in Afghanistan. Both administrations emphasized on applying pressure on Pakistan to cooperate with the United States. The President Obama’s strategy of increasing the troops didn’t succeed, and there is very little to no hope for the success of President Trump’s strategy.
To conclude, after spending trillion dollars on war in Afghanistan, losing thousands of lives of people, and affecting millions others; the people of the United States and Afghanistan would like to see the President Trump’s strategy and his administration will be able to end the “War on Terror” because former President Obama’s didn’t work out and failed to achieve the desired results. On the other hand, President Trump strategy has some achievements by signing a peace deal with Taliban which set up condition for intra-Afghan dialogue, but there is no guarantee the peace deal will end the war. There are a lot of issues that need clarification and agreement which means that the United States current and previous administrations failed to come with strategies to end the war which means the U.S. will be spending billions of dollars and losing many human lives.