After the United States has been in Afghanistan for 14 years, 91,000 Afghans have been killed and 26,000 wounded.
By Rachelle Marshall
The July 30 ruling by a federal judge that the U.S. may continue
holding as a prisoner of war an inmate of Guantanamo who was captured in
Afghanistan in 2002, was a reminder that America is still at war in that
country. The prisoner claimed that since the U.S. formally ended its combat
role in Afghanistan in 2014, he had a right to be released. But according to
Judge Royce C. Lambeth, the war in Afghanistan is not yet over. He wrote in his
decision, “The government may not always say what it means or means what it
says.” One of the defendant’s lawyers said the judge’s ruling endorsed “the
idea of a limitless forever war under which the government can continue
fighting.” But fighting for what? The murderous attack on the World Trade
Towers in September 2001 was masterminded, financed, and carried out by a group
of Saudis. Yet without attempting to understand the motivation behind the
suicidal attack, or to identify the policies that provoked it, George W. Bush
declared a “war on terror” and ordered the invasion of Afghanistan.
He did so with the full
support of Congress. Only one member, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), voted against
the resolution authorizing military action. In a column for the San Francisco
Chronicle of September 23, 2001, Lee urged that the perpetrators be brought to
justice, but added, “A rush to launch precipitous military counterattacks runs
too great a risk that more innocent men, women, and children will be killed. I
could not vote for a resolution that could lead to such an outcome.”
Her apprehension was justified.
As of last year, 91,000 Afghans had been killed, including 26,000 civilians.
More than 2,000 Americans were dead, and many more handicapped for life.
Whatever their deaths had accomplished, it was surely not victory.
The initial invasion by
U.S. and NATO troops, accompanied by massive bombing attacks, drove the Taliban
government out of Afghanistan and into Pakistan. But as the Americans began
turning much of the fighting over to the Afghan army, the Taliban were able to
fight their way back and regain control of a large part of the country, often
with the support of the local population.
In late July, Taliban
forces succeeded in capturing three northern provinces as hundreds of Afghan
soldiers either retreated or surrendered. A provincial council official accused
the army of “drowning in their own negligence.” Despite intensive training by
the Americans, the Afghan army is largely dysfunctional. Illiteracy and
desertion are major problems, but the army and police are mainly crippled by
the corruption that pervades every level of Afghan society. Soldiers complain
that their officers sell their bullets to the Taliban, then take the money
and leave their men stranded. One veteran explained to a reporter, “Our
commanders all buy their positions so they have to make money to pay for them.
The Taliban do not do this with their commanders.”
The corruption that starts
with officers selling their troops’ ammunition grows exponentially at higher
levels of government, to the degree that Transparency International cites
Afghanistan as one the three most corrupt countries in the world. Two years ago
Matthew Rosenberg reported in the New York Times that “For more than a decade,
wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks, and on occasion
plastic shopping bags, have been dropped off every month or so at the offices
of Afghanistan’s president — courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency.” “We
called it ‘ghost money,’” an Afghan official said.
Instead of providing
services to the Afghan people, or even buying influence, the money has damaged
the fabric of Afghan society and prevented economic growth. A country that
despite being poor was once almost self-sufficient in food and other essentials
is now almost entirely dependent on foreign funding. With an economy that for
years was focused on serving foreign troops, there has been little investment
in agriculture or industry, and as a result, poverty is endemic. At least a
million Afghan children suffer from acute malnutrition, and more than three
quarters of all Afghans lack access to clean water.
Analysts say the Taliban is
winning not because of its strength but because of the government’s weakness.
Too many Afghans don’t trust either the government, or the underpaid police and
soldiers sent to protect them. Too often the latter extort money from them or
abuse them in other ways. The New York Times quoted an anonymous diplomat as
saying, “Afghans are not looking for many things, mostly justice and
security.” He added, “There is justice under the Taliban.”
There has also been a
softening in the Taliban’s stand on some key issues. In recent interviews they
said they no longer “seek to monopolize power,” and they now consider education
and access to work as basic rights of women as well as men. Local commanders in
Kunduz are allowing schools to stay open and are distributing pens and
notebooks even to girls’ schools. Last June Taliban officials held a reportedly
cordial meeting with female Afghan peace activists, one of whom is a member of
the Afghan legislature.
The Taliban’s current
leader, Akhtar Mohammed Mansoor, appointed as his deputies two members of the
hard-line Haqqani network, which the U.S. has labeled terrorist, but he
nevertheless has been willing to engage in peace talks with the Afghan
government without preconditions.
So why is America still at
war in that beleaguered country? According to President Obama, it’s not. That
is, not exactly. Although 11,000 U.S. troops remain on active duty in
Afghanistan, America’s combat role officially ended on December 28, 2015,
when President Obama speaking from Hawaii, announced that “The longest war in
American history is coming to a responsible end.”
Operation Enduring Freedom
was officially over. But Operation Resolute Support immediately took its place.
“They change the name of the mission but the mission doesn't change,” said the
wife of a sergeant serving in Afghanistan. In November 2014, a month
before declaring the war over, Obama had signed a secret order expanding the
military’s mission in Afghanistan in 2015 to include fighting Taliban forces
that threatened American troops or the Afghan government, and authorizing
airstrikes and the resumption of nighttime house raids that in the past have
angered the Afghans.
This past June and July,
six months after Obama declared an end to the U.S. combat mission,U.S.
warplanes and drones carried out twice as many attacks on the Taliban and other
militants as in previous months. Although most of the strikes were aimed at
Taliban fighters, targets have expanded to include members of the Islamic
State, or ISIS, which is active in the eastern part of the country.
Given the fact that ISIS
constitutes a threat to both the Taliban and the Afghan government, logic
suggests that now is the time for Afghanistan to push for peace with the
Taliban and for the U.S. to actively encourage their efforts. Any peace
agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban is bound to be
less than perfect, but surely an imperfect peace is better than an
endless war that serves no purpose.
About the Author:
Rachelle Marshall is a former editor and writer and a member
of Mill Valley Seniors for Peace, a Jewish Voice for Peace, and Women’s International
League for Peace and Freedom.
This article was first published at Foreign Policy in Focus on Aug 5, 2015
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