The United States has now entered the 13th year of war in Afghanistan. I wish I could say that at least it is now coming to a close. But that would be a lie. President Obama has promised that the troops would be withdrawn by the end of 2014 (another 13 months), but that is really not true either.The United States has been negotiating with the Afghan government to leave thousands of American soldiers in that country for an indefinite period of time. NBC News has obtained a copy of the agreement the U.S. is trying to work out with the Afghan government, and the text of that agreement says it will "remain in force through 2024 and beyond". That's a minimum of 11 more years of war, and possibly a lot more (since there is no end date).
The agreement could be terminated by either country -- but only by giving a two-year notice. So, if the agreement goes into effect, the earliest either country could terminate it would be the end of 2016. That means this interminable war will have been fought, without any hope of winning, through two terms of the Bush presidency, two terms of the Obama presidency, and still be raging when the next president is elected in 2016.
The biggest hold-up to the agreement has been whether U.S. troops would be subject to Afghan or U.S. law if the commit a violation. The U.S. seems to have won that argument -- and troops that break the law will be subject to U.S. law. Now the only hold-up is whether U.S. troops could enter Afghan homes with permission of the Afghan government (which doesn't think the U.S. troops should have the right to do that).
An agreement has been reportedly worked out by Secretary of State Kerry, which says the U.S. government would admit to past violations and only enter Afghan homes in the future "under extreme circumstances". This agreement will soon go before the Loya Jirga (a meeting of more than 2,500 Afghan elders). That group has no real power to kill the agreement, by President Karzai has said he would not sign the agreement unless they approve it.
Hopefully, the elders will realize they are being played for fools by the American government, and not approve the agreement. The truth is that the "extreme circumstances" will mean anything the American government wants it to mean, and there's nothing the Afghans can do about it (since the soldiers making the entry will not be subject to Afghan law, and if the Afghans invoke the two year termination clause they will lose the hundreds of billions of dollars earmarked for them in the coming years).
Right now, it looks like the war will continue for many more years -- with both American soldiers and innocent Afghan citizens being killed (and billions more dollars being wasted), in spite of the fact that no one believes anymore that this endless war can be won. This is insane! We need to stop this madness right now, not at the end of 2014, and bring ALL of our soldiers back home.
