Two quotes from senior officials involved with the war in Afghanistan sum up the enormous breach of trust committed against those who fight our nation’s wars by the leaders who send them into harm’s way.
‘We were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan — we didn’t know what we were doing.’
The Washington Post’s recent exposé on the “Afghanistan Papers” has shone a revealing light on what the public has increasingly feared: Our military involvement in Afghanistan and beyond is not good for the country, needlessly wasting tax dollars and robbing us of precious American lives.
Just as trust is fundamental to our democratic republic, it is also a foundational principle for maintaining an all-volunteer military. Trust that our civilian and military leadership is acting in the best interest of our great country is fundamental to what makes our military the strongest and best anywhere. U.S. citizens serve because they believe they are justly defending our cherished freedoms and national interests.
Simon Sinek, the author of Leaders Eat Last, offers a profound example that inspired the title of his book. Across our military, commissioned and noncommissioned officers follow an unspoken rule by insisting subordinate troops eat first, literally and symbolically putting the interests of others before themselves. The act allows trust to grow within the ranks.
But throughout the Afghanistan Papers, we see leaders eating first. We see the betrayal of the unspoken agreement that compels brave men and women to risk their lives for a just cause and for one another.
The Afghanistan Papers depict widespread ethical fading at the highest levels of our government and military.
Even in the beginning, multiple senior commanders admitted the complete absence of an overarching strategy. Gen. Dan McNeill described his frustration upon assuming command of forces in Afghanistan. “I tried to get someone to define for me what ‘winning’ meant, even before I went over, and nobody could.” One U.S. Army Special Forces officer exquisitely summarized the underwhelming direction from his seniors: “Go and do good things.”
I served in Afghanistan, and it’s distressing to realize that as we risked our lives for the mission, the collective failure to create lasting results was deliberately hidden. Whether it was the number of troops trained, violence levels, or territorial control, the metrics were “manipulated” and altogether failed to paint an accurate picture of what was happening.
How can we be confident in our leaders when they show such disregard for American life?
An unease with the unending conflict in Afghanistan has grown steadily within the veteran community, and the lack of progress described in the Afghanistan Papers is no revelation to many of us who served. The next time you speak with an Afghanistan veteran, ask what they think about our efforts in the country. You may be surprised how it differs from the Washington narrative.
A recent Pew poll shows that nearly 6 out of 10 veterans believe the war in Afghanistan isn’t worth fighting. Coming from those with firsthand knowledge of the situation, this should alarm all U.S. citizens.
We cannot undo two decades of war. We cannot unspend trillions of tax dollars. We cannot undo the years of family separation during deployments. And most soberingly, we can never again benefit from the potential of those who served us who lost their lives. But there is much we can and should do.
We can and should demand Congress exercise its constitutional responsibilities over matters of war and peace, insisting our elected leaders debate and authorize action before sending U.S. men and women to war. We can and should always remind the president of his stated commitment to end endless wars and bring our troops home. And America can and should rethink its broader approach to the world by adopting a new foreign policy that utilizes our military might as a last option.
For reasons we may never fully understand, those charged with running the war in Afghanistan collectively demonstrated a failure of moral courage and leadership. They chose the easy wrong over the difficult right, set our bravest young men and women up for failure, and betrayed our trust in their ability to do the right thing.
Our mistakes can’t be undone, but we can learn from them. By holding our leaders accountable and taking action to rein in our foreign policy, we can begin rebuilding the foundation of trust our military and society need.
Nate Anderson is executive director of Concerned Veterans for America and a U.S. Army National Guard Green Beret.
