Getting Out of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

As debate and discussion goes on in the Obama Administration and in the U.S. Congress as to what our continued role in Iraq and Afghanistan should be, I pray that a way be sought to extradite us from there ASAP. The underlying reasons for involvement in both conflicts was flawed with the exception of destroying al-Qaida and their ability to attack us. Our conduct of these wars was simply bad judgment compounded by more bad judgment. It has proven to be and continues to be too costly in lives lost and injuries sustained by both our soldiers and the citizens of these nations. It was and continues to be too costly a use of our limited resources. In my view, we cannot afford to continue with these policies. It is terribly destructive for both us and these nations and is destabilizing for this region and the rest of the world.

When one invades another nation, essentially destroys it with superior raw military firepower, kills and injures thousands , and then attempts to impose our cultural, economic, and political systems upon them, justifying it as “nation building” in our image, you accomplish nothing but ill will. Their hatred of us resulting from our actions will continue on for generations to come. Why wouldn’t they. Just put yourself in their shoes. What would be the attitude of most in this country if we were to be militarily invaded, our country destroyed, where almost everyone in the country had friends and relatives killed or injured, and our cultural, economic, and political systems were forcibly altered. How many generations would it take to forget this. Afghan’s history is one of almost constant war against invading armies or amongst themselves. Because of their strategic location as a buffer between several powerful civilizations, they have been invaded by about every notable army beginning with Alexander the Great. All of them found Afghanistan to be inhospitable. In modern times, both the British and the Russians took their turn at occupying them only to leave several years later thinking the effort too costly and of little value. Afghanistan takes great pride in thwarting these efforts whatever the cost and we should have factored that into our plans.

One of the biggest barriers to getting out of these conflicts is our unwillingness to “lose face.” I submit that this is a terrible indictment of our collective ego. We are so afraid that it will be perceived as weakness on our part that we are willing to seriously consider expanding our military involvement with its continued injury and loss of life to our soldiers, the continued squandering of our limited resources, and the further solidifying of their hatred towards us. Our military capability to kill and destroy has been well documented here, but short of genocide, you don’t win insurgency type wars with military “shock and awe.” You might win conventional wars with this type of military action, but not wars of this nature, but we don’t seem to “get it.”

Another major concern is whether getting out ASAP will put as at a greater risk from extremist, militant, Islamic groups. Yes it might. They are out there, they want revenge, they want to “bring us down,” and they are dedicated to jihad. We’ve spent 8 years in the region and we still haven’t destroyed al-Qaida and now it is wider spread and very mobile. We’ve made it more of a monster than it already was and put ourselves at greater risk than before. We will have to remain vigilant at home and abroad. We will have to be ready to move quickly and be devastating in our military attacks on their training centers, work to disrupt their lines of communication, and most importantly, move to cut off their supply of money needed to support themselves. It will require that we develop and institute the tools to do the above and probably more.

Our Presidents, our National Security Council, our Congress, and our Department of Defense have let us down over the last 35 years. We should have been prepared for this kind of struggle with lessons learned in Vietnam and been prepared to modify it to other geographic regions and cultural and political situations. Instead, despite warnings from President Eisenhower back in 1961, we have spent billions of dollars in supporting a conventional “military industrial complex” that we now know was out dated. It has been our “Maginot Line,” and it has cost us dearly. And, if and when we move beyond this, we need to heed Collin Powell’s warning to avoid a terrorist military-industrial complex. Unfortunately, there is and will continue to be too much money to be made in the war business.

Another, and in my mind the saddest problem with getting out ASAP is, how do you say sorry to individuals and families of our soldiers who went off to war under the belief that they were doing their patriotic duty to make America safe and to preserve our great nation. They put themselves at great risk, they suffered life time injuries, and were killed doing what they were told was right. And then, for us to say, “We screwed up,” is a “bitter pill.” It will take incredibly courageous political leadership to make this admission because of the firestorm of criticism from the hawkish, hard line, conservative right. But, we dealt with it before with our disengagement from Vietnam and our wise acceptance of limited objectives in Korea and the Gulf War. No matter what is said or how it is couched, it won’t correct the mistakes. Those who served need to be honored for their sacrifice and we can only hope that in turn they will magnanimously agree that continuing to put others in harms way does not make good sense.