Public No Longer Believes Afghan War Can Be Successful

We are now in the thirteenth year of war in Afghanistan, and the end is still not in sight. While President Obama had originally promised we would have our troops out of Afghanistan by now, after taking office he delayed that until the end of this year. Now he, and the Pentagon generals, want to keep troops in Afghanistan much longer -- perhaps as long as another ten years (until 2024).

We should not have invaded Afghanistan in the first place. The type of government they have is the business of the Afghan people -- not the U.S. government. The original excuse for the war was to get Osama bin Laden, but that has been accomplished and we are still there (and anyway, the Afghan government offered to hand him over for trial at The Hague -- which we refused, since that would not satisfy the bloodlust of our government).

The truth is that after the invasion and occupation, the U.S. changed its goal. Instead of just getting Osama and his buddies, we decided to do a regime change in that country -- having learned nothing from the failures to do that in both Vietnam and Iraq. And while our army is the best at fighting a conventional war, they are not suited for regime change (at least not one that can be sustained). We seem not to have learned that governments cannot be sustained without the support of the people, and that cannot be done with military power.

In short, we have failed to achieve our goals in Afghanistan -- and it is very unlikely that staying longer will change that. And the American people know that, even if our government doesn't. Two new polls are out, and they show what other polls have shown -- that the American people believe we are not winning the Afghan War, and won't win it by staying longer. It is time to withdraw ALL of our troops, and let the Afghan people decide their own fate.

The Pew Research Center survey was done between January 15th and 19th of a random sample of 1,504 nationwide adults, and has a margin of error of 2.9 points.

The Rasmussen Poll was done on February 14th and 15th of a random nationwide sample of 1,000 likely voters, and has a margin of error of 3 points.