More On Our Never-Ending War

President Bush invaded Afghanistan on October 7, 2001.   That means the war is now in its tenth year.   On the campaign trail, President Obama promised to withdraw American troops from both Iraq and Afghanistan when he was elected.   He has withdrawn a lot of troops from Iraq, but 50,000 still remain in that country with no date for withdrawal.   As for Afghanistan, the president said the troops would be out by the end of 2011.

But that 2011 date has already been tossed out.   Recently, the American government and its NATO allies pushed the withdrawal date back to 2014 -- another four years.   Now it looks like the government may not even be able to meet the 2014 timeline (even though a majority of the American people now believe we cannot win in Afghanistan).

In a recent interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, General Petraeus said he was not sure the military could meet the 2014 deadline.   The general said:

“I think-no commander ever is going to come out and say, ‘I'm confident that we can do this.’  I think that you say that you assess that this is-- you believe this is, you know, a reasonable prospect and knowing how important it is-- that we have to do everything we can to increase the chances of that prospect.  But again, I don't think there are any sure things in this kind of endeavor.  And I wouldn't be honest with you and with the viewers if I didn't convey that.”


That doesn't sound too encouraging.   It looks like American soldiers will be fighting and dying in Afghanistan for many more years.   Before this war is over it may make Vietnam look like a short conflict.   The general went on to say:

“Well, we clearly have to continue to provide the message to the Afghan people about why we're here, and what it is that we want to do, not just for our own national objectives and coalition objectives, but also for the people of this country, and for the government of Afghanistan, to enable them, indeed, to secure and to govern themselves."


But while the general wants to secure a future for the Afghan people, those same people don't think the Americans (and their allies) can do that, and they would like for us to leave by 2011.   An ABC News/Washington Post poll showed a majority (55%) of the Afghan people want the  U.S. to keep the 2011 timeline.   Here's some of the polls results:

Should the U.S. start withdrawing troops in summer of 2011?
Leave in summer...............27%
Leave sooner...............28%
Stay longer...............17%
Depends on security...............26%
No opinion...............2%

Is the support for the U.S. and NATO strong or weak?
Very strong...............6%
Fairly strong...............29%
Weak...............38%
None...............25%
No opinion...............2%

When civilians are harmed in air strikes, who do you blame?
U.S. and NATO...............35%
Anti-government forces...............32%
Both...............32%
No opinion...............1%

Is your opinion of the following favorable or unfavorable?

United States
Favorable...............43%
Unfavorable...............56%

United Kingdom
Favorable...............39%
Unfavorable...............56%

Iran
Favorable...............58%
Unfavorable...............41%

India
Favorable...............72%
Unfavorable...............25%

Pakistan
Favorable...............18%
Unfavorable...............82%

What kind of government do you think Afghanistan should have?
Strong leader...............23%
Islamic state...............39%
Democracy...............37%

As the above numbers show, a majority of Afghans want us to leave, only a minority supports us strongly or fairly strongly, and a clear minority want the kind of government we have foisted upon them.   Over 56% of the population believes the last election was fraudulent.   And Afghans are pretty evenly split over whether the performance of U.S. and NATO troops has gotten better (36%), gotten worse (32%), or stayed about the same (31%).

The truth is that we are not accomplishing much in Afghanistan (assuming we even know what we want to accomplish), and staying until 2014 or even longer is not going to change that.   It is time to bring our soldiers home from Afghanistan (and Iraq).