It is easier to see clearly when looking at past events, than it is to forecast the future. It might be helpful for all of us to remember that the decisions that resulted in the War in Afghanistan were made with the information available at the time, and without the benefit of hindsight, (although a little regard for History might have helped.) It is a mistake to judge what has taken place in Afghanistan without considering that decision making usually takes place without complete information. In decision making, we never have all the information needed, nor do we even have enough useful information to guarantee a successful outcome all of the time. In some cases, leaders may consider it to be better to act decisively, rather than to vacillate, even if there is a risk of being wrong.
On September 11, 2001, airliners hijacked by 19 terrorists aligned with al-Qaeda were deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Another hijacked airliner crashed into a field in Pennsylvania when the passengers heroically struggled with the terrorists to get control of it. On that terrible day, around 3,000 people died. First responders and civilians are still dying from exposure to the smoke and debris. The primary cause of the War in Afghanistan was the 9/11 attacks, and it is a mistake to think otherwise.
We may never know the whole truth about why Usama bin Laden ordered the 9/11 attacks. We do know that American military actions have been taking place in the Middle East and Afghanistan ever since. Many militant Islamists have paid with their lives, including Usama bin Laden himself. Regardless of the ultimate outcome in Afghanistan, it was a mistake for bin Laden to kick over that kind of hornets’ nest. It drew the United States deeper into the affairs of the Muslim world, rather than moving us out.
It was a mistake for President Bush to allow a businessman like Donald Rumsfeld to direct the military efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. War is not a matter of controlling costs by allocating “just enough” resources to achieve “limited and clearly defined objectives.” The military needs to be able to bring overwhelming force to bear in order to seize and retain the initiative and to find, fix, close with, and destroy the enemy. If there are insufficient resources to fix the enemy to a position, they will not be completely destroyed, and their escape cannot be blocked. In Afghanistan, some of the bad guys got away. We must not try to prosecute war “on the cheap.”
President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary Rumsfeld made a mistake when they opened a second front in Iraq before the job was done in Afghanistan. The resources needed to close the deal in Afghanistan were diverted to Iraq, and it doomed the effort in Afghanistan to a slow and agonizing death.
In my opinion, it is a mistake to regard the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria as individual wars. Rather, it is better to view them as theaters of operations in a larger War on Terror. Immediately following the September 11th attacks, President George W. Bush spoke eloquently about such a war. In what some called “the Bush doctrine” the President said that the United States would wage this war wherever terrorists were found. He warned that the war would last a long time, and that for America to survive we must not lose our resolve. Somehow along the way those ideas got lost, and we need to find them again.
On her Fox News program, The Ingram Angle, I recently heard Laura Ingram point out that the United States of America has not decisively won a war since World War II. She suggested that we needed new decision makers with a different approach to waging war. Amen.
It is a mistake for America to go to war unless we are willing to do whatever it takes to win it. Winning a war means to destroy the enemy until they are unable and unwilling to fight. It does not mean to achieve limited and clearly defined objectives. It is a mistake to allow the enemy to have sanctuaries where they can recover, reorganize, and then conduct “asymmetrical warfare.”
War is the worst, most horrible thing humankind does. I wish that there could be an end to it. So far as I know, however, there will be war until Jesus Christ returns to Earth to set up His thousand-year kingdom. We should do everything humanly possible to avoid going to war. If we cannot avoid it, we must stop trying to fight with one hand tied behind our back. We must fight to win … fight until the threat to our country is utterly destroyed. As Albert Einstein is reported to have said, ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.’ It is a mistake to fight limited, no-win wars.
It is a mistake to generalize. Countries differ in history, culture, religion, social organization, economic resources, and infrastructure, to name a few. What worked in one country may not be possible in another. We helped Italy, Germany, Japan and others rebuild after WWII. We helped South Korea become a wonderful success story. That did not work in Afghanistan. About a decade ago an informed source who had served for a number of years in Afghanistan told me that country would revert to what it used to be before our involvement, the minute we pulled out. Was it a mistake for us to stay so long and try to help the Afghan people learn to have a better life? Only if we were not prepared to stay there as long as it takes. Only if we were not willing to pursue and destroy the Taliban, no matter where they took refuge.
To put all the blame on any one President for our failure in Afghanistan is a mistake. President Biden’s mismanagement of the final withdrawal, however, has done incalculable damage to America and Afghanistan.
To think we can fix the way we wage war without revamping our entire way of waging war is also a mistake. We cannot use even battalion sized special operations units when the situation calls for overwhelming force from Brigade or Division sized units with tank, artillery, and air support.
It is a mistake to think it is over. The War on Terror will not end until the terrorists stop waging war on us.
“Wars begin when
you will,
but they do not
end when you please.”
Niccolo Machiavelli.
https://philosiblog.com/2012/10/06/wars-begin-when-you-will-but-they-do-not-end-when-you-please/
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