And Trump's Afghanistan plan looks a lot like Obama's.
Why did it take a prime time address to announce more troops being deployed to a 16-year long war? Trying to look more presidential perhaps? And by the end of Trump’s speech, his plan sounded a lot like someone's who preceded him, -- News and Guts.
President Obama said, “ . . . I will make the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban the top priority that it should be. This is a war that we have to win.”
“We will win,” Trump declared Monday night.
But what does it mean to win in Afghanistan? Winning, as in conquering the enemy with bullets and a bayonet, is not possible.
1. We need to win the ideological battle:
“ . . . the fire that’s consuming this corner of the globe [Afghanistan, and the greater middle east] isn’t the heart of the problem—it’s the underbrush fueling the fire. ‘The real challenge that we have to face is there’s an ideological battle going on here, and what is the plan to confront that?’ Lieut. General Bob Otto, the Air Force’s top intelligence and surveillance officer, said Thursday. ‘This isn’t a military issue,’” -- Time.
2. Bring back the draft, and make Americans personally aware of the human costs of war. Perhaps then America’s longest war will not be won but it will end. And that’s what the United States needs to do: simply finally end the Afghan war.
“This is the 16th year of America's war in Afghanistan -- the longest war in American history. I guarantee you that if we still had a draft, it wouldn't have lasted this long.
“From World War II until the final days of the Vietnam War, in January 1973, nearly every young man in America faced the prospect of being drafted into the Army. Sure, many children of the rich found means to stay out of harm’s way. But the draft at least spread responsibility and heightened the public’s sensitivity to the human costs of war. Richard Nixon officially ended the draft and created a paid military, mainly to take the wind out of the sails of the anti-war movement -- and he succeeded.
“Today’s military is composed of fewer young people from rich families than the population as a whole. Most come from the same kind of blue-collar households whose incomes have gone nowhere for four decades.
“It’s easy to support a war that you don’t have a fight in. A 2004 survey showed that the majority of young people supported the US. Invasion of Iraq but only a small minority were themselves willing to fight in that war.
“Bring back the draft, and make Americans personally aware of the human costs of war.”
At the end of the day, there is no winning in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Syria. Winning doesn’t have a military dimension.
By Alex Ward
