(Department of Defense photo of a combined patrol in Afghanistan.)The war in Afghanistan will soon be 16 years old -- and is already the longest war the United States has ever fought. It was started by George W. Bush to apprehend and punish Osama bin Laden (who planned the 9/11 attack on New York City and the Pentagon). It was not really necessary, since the Afghan government offered to apprehend bi Laden and turn him over to the International Court in The Hague to be tried for that crime.
That wasn't good enough for Bush. He wanted bin Laden tried by an American court (and executed), so he invaded Afghanistan to capture or kill bin Laden. He was able to topple the Taliban-controlled government, but could not get bin Laden, so he changed the purpose of the war. He decided to use the U.S. military to do some nation-building (installing an American-style government there, whether the Afghan people wanted it or not).
That was quickly proven to be unsustainable. It was obvious that the Taliban was not being eliminated, and the government installed by the U.S. would fall as soon as the U.S. left the country. He spent the rest of his term (7 years) trying to accomplish this new goal -- and failed.
Barack Obama then took over. He was able to find (and eliminate Osama bin Laden), but proved no more able than Bush to eliminate the Taliban or build an Afghan government that could be sustained once the U.S. withdrew. After 8 more years of war, the best he could do is cut the number of U.S. troops there to about 8,400 -- saying they were left to train the Afghans and fight terrorism.
Now Donald Trump has inherited the war. On Monday, he was supposed to announce a new policy regarding Afghanistan. Sadly that proved to be just another of his many lies (there have been over 1,000 of them since January). All he really did was announce a continuation of the policy followed by Bush and Obama -- a policy that has failed.
He announced that his goal was to defeat the Taliban. That sounds good (just like it has sounded good for many years now), but he offered no real plan to do that -- other than to send more troops to Afghanistan (probably around 4,000). He seems to be living in a dream world. We couldn't eliminate the Taliban in 2010 when we had about 100,000 troops in that country, so I fail to see how 12,400 is going to accomplish that goal.
Trump also said we would no longer engage in nation-building, and the Afghan people could install what ever kind of government they wanted. But that was just talk (another lie). The only way to do that is to withdraw all our troops and let the Afghans do what they want. He's not doing that though. He's continuing the same old policy.
All trump has done is assure Americans that their longest war will last even longer -- at least through the end of his tenure as president. There is no "new" policy -- just a continuation of an endless war.
