The United States launched its military intervention into Afghanistan in 2001. In the 19 years since, it has become not only our longest war, but also our most expensive, even as prospects on the ground continue to look bleak. Congress has appropriated a total of $776 billion in taxpayer money to fund military operations in Afghanistan, and thousands of U.S. soldiers have died on Afghan soil.
Now, even many veterans who served in Afghanistan no longer think our failed exercise in nation-building is worth it anymore.
One of the most prominent veterans making this case is Nate Anderson, the executive director of the grassroots advocacy group Concerned Veterans for America. When Anderson sat down across from me in the offices of the Washington Examiner, he told me about his experiences as a former Green Beret who deployed to Afghanistan for 18 months.
Anderson said that in Afghanistan, he witnessed “a mission devoid of a long-term purpose.”
“We were serving our country, we were doing everything we could to make a difference,” he told me. “But from a strategic sense, it didn’t really feel like there was something bigger that we were moving towards … and that was back [during] the height of the war.”
We first intervened in Afghanistan after 9/11 to punish the Taliban for its support of the terrorists who had planned the attack on U.S. soil. This objective, however, was achieved in the first few years of the conflict. The decade-and-a-half of American military intervention since has basically been a failed exercise in nation-building, with us trying to prop up an Afghan government as an alternative to the Taliban with little success.
Anderson told me, “The Afghan national army that we trained … it was very evident that they couldn’t really sustain the fight that they were going to have to sustain after U.S. forces withdrew.” This remains the case today despite so much of our blood and treasure having gone into this failed effort. Insiders say the Afghan forces would collapse in “one day” without U.S. support.
When I asked Anderson about the human costs of this faltering conflict, I was shocked by his candor.
“I’ve lost you know, my share of brothers in arms, friends in that country … one of them just a few weeks ago,” he told me, the emotion is his voice becoming palpable. “You like to think that when somebody gives their life in uniform, it’s for a cause that is worthy of a sacrifice like that. And after, after the Afghanistan Papers were released … ” — here, he’s referring to documents published by the Washington Post showing that U.S. officials mangled the operation in Afghanistan and misled the public about it — “It’s more and more difficult to justify that that human cost … not to mention the financial cost, which is in its own right astronomical and hardly justified. But the human potential that we’ve spent in [Afghanistan] is significant.”
Here’s the words that stuck with me: “Those [men we lost] are the best of America. And to say that they died for something that is in U.S. interests is increasingly hard to say. That’s a difficult thing to reconcile as a veteran.”
Given that my conversation with Anderson took place in the aftermath of the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, I couldn’t help but wonder if we were headed toward another prolonged, costly Middle East engagement where more American heroes might ultimately die in vain. Tensions with Iran certainly do appear to have backed down from the precipice of all-out war, but Anderson warned me it was “premature” to make any final assessment.
And armed conflict with Iran, he said, “would be a mistake. Full stop.” He went on to say that “the threat that we’ve put our men and women in, in the Middle East right now is unnecessary … they’re targets right now.” Anderson argues that we should de-escalate the situation by “drawing our forces down in Iraq and Afghanistan.” As he describes it, leaving them there increases the odds of an all-out conflict.
In both Afghanistan and Iraq, such withdrawal is long overdue. President Trump promised to bring troops home from both countries, but as of today, has left thousands of our service members deployed in the two Middle Eastern nations.
Given that Concerned Veterans for America represents thousands of veterans and is in touch with the grassroots community, Anderson felt able to estimate the temperature of the veteran community on this issue. He told me that polling shows veterans overwhelming support drawing down our Middle Eastern engagements, and even wagered that if Trump follows through on his promises to end our “endless wars,” that could give him the boost he needs to get over the line in 2020.
Let’s hope Trump takes his advice.
