Adios Afghanistan

On October 7, 2001 the USA and certain of its allies launched Operation Enduring Freedom, an invasion of Afghanistan in response to the al Qaeda attacks on the USA of September 11, 2001.  The stated goal of this invasion was to dismantle al Qaeda and dismantle its training and logistical operations in Afghanistan facilitated by the friendly Taliban regime that came to power when Russia deserted the country. 

Over the years, the USA and its allies became bogged down fighting and dismantling the Taliban while al Qaeda moved across the border to Pakistan.  During the occupation the invading forces established Hamid Karzai, a former Unical executive, as president.  Karzai, who suffers from and is medicated regularly for depression, proved to be a contrary partner and ran a corrupt administration that exercises power only over the capital of Kabul.  During the occupation and continued war against the Taliban, Karzai has repeatedly criticized the USA and its allies who are keeping him in office.  Karzai has proven that in addition to being corrupt and inept, he is not to be trusted. 

This week, after more than eleven years of military action resulting in the deaths of 2175 Americans and a total of 3255 allied forces to date, President Obama annouced that the USA is drawing down its forces and turning over to the Afghan army and police the duties of maintaining the country's security.  During the same press conference, Karzai announced that he is retiring from office this year.

This military action originally had a clear goal and mission that is quickly accomplished but became distracted by an unrelated USA invasion of Iraq instigated by a weak US president who was manipulated by a cabal led by his own vice president.  The stated goal was not to defeat the Taliban and establish a regime friendly to the allied forces but to dismantle al Qaeda.  No one in the allied command seemed to notice or care that al Qaeda was replaced by the Taliban as the on-field adversary and that the goal of the mission, costly in both human lives and financial expenditures, became the perpetuation of the corrupt and inept Karzai administration even despite Karzai's traitorous actions towards the allies.  For many years now that USA and its remaining allies in the invasion have ignored the original goal of the mission.

The USA has needlessly lost too many soldiers and spent too much of its scant resources on a mission that long ago lost its focus and resulted in the USA and its allies becoming proxies for the Karzai administration in a civil war against the Taliban.  Finally the USA has determined that it has lost too much, including most of its allies, while accomplishing little in respect of its original goal.  The enemy is al Qaeda, not the Taliban and, similar to Karzai using the USA and its allies as proxies to fight its side of its civil war, al Qaeda is using the Taliban to engage and distract the USA from pursuing and accomplishing its objective, namely the eradication of al Qaeda.

The USA has been fighting in Afghanistan too long and for no good purpose.  The removal of US forces from the killing fields is long overdue as is its support of Karzai who, not surprisingly, is stepping down as the USA withdraws.  As an adjunct to this belated withdrawal, Obama has named former US Senator Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense to oversee the withdrawal.  Hagel is the right man for this job now and Hagel will ensure that the future use of US forces will be in actions with clearly defined goals and plans of execution.  As a former war veteran and Purple Heart recipient, Hagel will fight to keep certain elements of the US government from using military force to further hidden agendas and will maintain focus of the goals of any missions undertaken. 

Adios, Afghanistan and good luck to Sen. Hagel in maintaining sanity and integrity in the use of US military might in the future.  For the past eleven years, the US has lost too much and accomplished too little.  The time to bring US troops home is long overdue.