Afghanistan. What was it all for?

The situation is surreal.??As if we’re in some sort of nightmare watching this unfold, unable to wake up.??Seeing images of desperate Afghans storming the Kabul airport, climbing up jet ways, forcing themselves onto civilian airplanes or even clinging to the side of a taxiing USAF C-17, only to fall to their death shortly after takeoff, is both tragic and terrifying.??

With the recent fall of Kabul and the almost unbelievable speed at which the Taliban stripped the Afghan government of its power and control, its military and security forces of its leadership and weapons, and its people of their security and freedom… many, including myself, have asked… “How could this happen???What was it all for?”.

The “How could this happen?” will be a question that historians and analysts will spend the next several years trying to figure out.

The “What was it all for?” can be answered now.?

Over the last 20 years, immediately following the attacks of 9-11, the US led a coalition of over 50 of the world’s nations (through NATO and ISAF) in the war in Afghanistan.??Their primary missions were to remove the Taliban from their seat of power in Afghanistan, degrade/disrupt/deny al-Qaeda operations so that another 9-11 scale attack could not be launched against the US or its allies, and capture or kill Osama bin Laden.??Secondary to that mission, as established by the UN Security Council (through ISAF) was to train the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and assist Afghanistan leaders in rebuilding key government institutions so that the Afghan people could decide for themselves their own fate and future.??

We accomplished all of those objectives.??Our mission was a success.??We drove the Taliban back into the rat holes they climbed out of.??We broke the back of the terrorist organization known as al-Qaeda, captured and killed their leader Osama bin Laden, and kept our country safe for the last 20 years, preventing another 9-11 scale event.??We took control of Afghanistan and gave it back to the Afghan people.??We trained and equipped over 300,000 members in the ANSF.??We helped them rebuild a more democratic government which allowed them freedom to decide their own future.??

It had a cost to us, both in dollars (trillions) and human life.??2,448 American service members were killed.??Tens of thousands more injured.??Many who will struggle with their injuries (physical, emotional, and psychological) for the rest of their lives.??This is a cost that military families continue to pay today and will continue to pay for the rest of their lives.??

We gave them what we could and what they needed to succeed.??Diplomacy, security, freedom, education, military equipment and training, and financial assistance.??More than 47,000 Afghan civilians died over the last 20 years resisting the Taliban and al-Qaeda tyranny, helping the US weed out an enemy that hid among them.??More than 66,000 Afghan national military and police died in the line of duty, fighting alongside the US and its allies.??There is no question that the Afghan people wanted their freedom as much as we wanted it for them.?

But here’s the hard truth.??And it’s difficult to accept, after the price we paid.??What we couldn’t give them were leaders who had the moral conviction not to secretly sympathize with the Taliban and al-Qaeda all the while pretending to be working for the Afghan people and pretending to help the US led coalition.??The levels of corruption and weakness in the mid-to-senior levels of leadership in their government, security forces, and military… was far more pervasive and widespread than we knew.??That corruption and weakness were the reasons why the Taliban needed only 2 weeks to reverse what we worked for over the last 20 years.??It’s a sad truth, but without leadership who were committed to serving their people and brave enough to fight, the Afghan people were doomed.?

This reminds of a great quote by John Stuart Mill:

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice, — is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.”

The United States and all of its military and civilians who served and supported the last 20 years in our Global War on Terror, specifically the War in Afghanistan, should hold their heads high and be proud of their service to their country.??They fought valiantly in the “war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give ‘the Afghan people” a victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice”.?

It was the corrupt Afghan leadership who failed.??They were the ones responsible for “the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war”.??They were men who “had nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”

As hard as it might be, the Afghan people must continue to fight.??Only when they achieve their own freedom and independence from the tyranny and brutality of the Taliban and their terrorist allies… will they be able to appreciate what they fought for, and therefore be willing to do whatever it takes to keep it.?

As for us, we would be wise to remember Sun Tzu’s “Art of War, Chapter 2:??Waging War”.??This chapter makes three poignant points that all US military leaders are taught:

1. What is essential in?war?is?victory, not prolonged operations.
2. Where the army is, prices are high; when prices rise the wealth of the people is exhausted.
3. There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare.

We achieved victory.??It was past time for us to go and allow the people of Afghanistan a chance to stand on their own.

Do me a favor.??

I know a lot of military service men and women, veterans, and their families, are struggling with the question of “What was it all for?”.??I can tell you that many of them are questioning if the burden they’ve carried (and asked their families to carry) was “all for nothing”.??They may be questioning whether “we failed”.???Some may feel guilt (many established relationships with Afghan citizens, families, children, village elders). Some may have feelings of abandonment. Some may be feeling hopeless right now. According to the Pentagon's data, the suicide rate in active duty members has?showed a steady increase from 2014 with a significant spike in 2020. Our military men and women don’t need to carry any more weight than they’ve already carried or are currently carrying.??

If you know a veteran, reach out and check in with them. Hear them out and let them vent. Let them know how grateful you are for their service and sacrifice.??Remind them that they were mission successful.??That we did not lose.??Remind them that for the last 20 years they protected our country and prevented another 9-11 scale attack.??Remind them that we broke the back of Al Qaeda and captured and killed their leader and mastermind of the 9-11 attacks, Osama bin Laden.??Remind them that because of their service and sacrifice, they drove the Taliban from their seats of power and for the last 2 decades provided the Afghan people the security to live as a free people.??Remind them that an entire generation of young Afghan adults, especially young women, enjoyed the benefits that that their service and sacrifice brought with it.??Education, dignity, freedom.??

Remind them that Afghanistan’s future was never their responsibility and that they have a grateful nation who acknowledges their service and sacrifice.??Thank them for keeping you safe.

There is still a significant threat of global terrorism that we face out there and we’re going to need them, now more than ever.??