Bipartisan agreement isn’t dead as left, right agree that with a few more air strikes Afghanistan will be a stable democracy
While it’s clear that a president doesn’t need Congressional approval to start a war, they sure as hell need it to end one
Republican leader Mitch McConnell and Democrat Chuck Schumer (Aaron Bernstein, Reuters)
The flood of information at our fingertips has swept us farther apart in what we believe, rather than brought us closer together. Indeed it seems we can’t agree on anything. Is Elon Musk humanity’s saviour or a toxic troll? Is socialism a good idea? And what exactly is Russia up to? So it was a breath of fresh air when Senators from across the political spectrum voted, 81-13, to stop the executive branch from reducing American troop numbers in Afghanistan, agreeing that it is just a couple of well placed drone strikes away from transitioning to a stable democracy. Their rare override of the president’s veto was a biting rebuke of Commander in Chief Donald Trump’s attempt to reduce the American military presence there to 2,500. The bipartisan consensus is that 7,025 days after the invasion and almost 14,000 drone strikes later, we are on the cusp of imposing peace. If we blink now, all is lost.
Of course, the naysayers will ask what this will yield that the past 20 years could not. But any kindergartener knows that if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again. The mission is clear; as reported in October 2001 it is to “punish the Taliban for harbouring terrorists, acquire intelligence that will help future operations against Al Qaeda and to weaken the Taliban so severely that they will not be able to withstand an opposition assault”. Simple. And if $2 trillion couldn’t do that, what’s an extra $500bn or so? It’s worth a try, right?
So who exactly are these naysayers? Well, the American people for a start. 59% say the war is not worth fighting. But they were wrong about smoking, flair jeans, and Bill Cosby, so they’re probably wrong now too. Of the hundreds of thousands of Afghanistan veterans, a full 73% support a complete withdrawal. Which just shows that to be a good leader you must be willing to lead your country and troops into wars they don’t want, rather than follow them home after 2,400 casualties (not to mention over 100 thousand civilian casualties).
Americans have been wrong in the past; so are they wrong about Afghanistan too?
Set against this motley crew of everyday citizens, the war’s supporters include some high IQ heavy hitters. Bill Kristol, cheerleader in chief for the Iraq war (which he predicted would be over in 2 months) is against the deal (see below) and in fact has not been so angry since President Obama attempted to withdraw troops to below 10,000 back in…2014. On that occasion, he called it “beyond irresponsible and totally crazy”. The responsible thing is obviously to just deploy troops forever. Max Boot, who advocated for a series of interventions starting in Afghanistan and spreading to Iraq in an American Empire, says “the conditions simply are not propitious to end the civil conflict that has been raging in one form or another since 1978”. That dose of hard headed realism is brought to you by the same mind that said “Once we have deposed Saddam, we can impose an American-led, international regency in Baghdad, to go along with the one in Kabul. To turn Iraq into a beacon of hope for the oppressed peoples of the Middle East”. And as far as John Bolton is concerned, the question isn’t why do we have 5,000 soldiers in Afghanistan; it’s why don’t we have 50,000 in Iran as well.
Compare that to Barbara Lee, the lone Congresswoman to oppose the bill authorising the use of force in 2001. You know, the one passed 3 days after 9/11 in a daze of fear and anger, that has since been used 41 times in 18 countries. As recently as 2017 she was still trying to repeal this force authorisation. Which just goes to show you that after 16 years of failing with the same approach over and over again, you should just stop. Unless of course the approach is military occupation, in which case you should just keep doing it forever.
Barbara Lee in 2001: “Think through the implications of our actions today, so that this does not spiral out of control”
The problem is that most American’s don’t understand strategy. Bombing random weddings 7,000 miles from Washington DC actually makes us stronger, even if those people are not a threat, because it shows potential enemies that we don’t give a fuck. If they take a swing at us, or harbour anyone who does, then 20 years after they take that first swing they’ll still be scanning the skies in fear. And because we set that example, we don’t have to worry about terrorism anymore. So, the general public just needs to put their faith in those 81 clever senators, the thinkers like Boot and Kristol who underpin their policies, and continue to send their children off to war.
Footage of John Bolton negotiating with a minor Afghan warlord
But seriously…
…it’s obvious our objectives can’t be achieved. Even if they could, it might not be worth the cost. Americans recognise this and want to get out. So why can’t we just leave? Why do the likes of Kristol, Boot, and Bolton get to overrule the majority of Americans, and those who served, and the actual president? Why could President Obama enter a conflict in Libya without Congressional approval, but President Trump, or any other president who wanted to, can’t order troops home as Commander in Chief without Congressional approval?
Look at this image. These are 8 American servicemen who died in 2019-20 (out of 37 total dead) while on deployment in the Afghan conflict. The numbers show how old they were when 9/11 happened. Is it worth sending more young men to die? Soon we will see the first casualties in Afghanistan of soldiers who weren’t even alive on 9/11, and who have never had a chance to vote for a truly anti-war president. Nobel Peace prize-winner and self-proclaimed assassin extraordinaire Barack Obama was willing to send 100,000 soldiers to Afghanistan. Trump was unable to carry out his promise of withdrawal (or unwilling to weather the political cost of doing so). And now with Joe Biden coming in, and bringing back many Obama era unreformed interventionists at the Pentagon, things will likely get worse.
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