CommentsEASTSIDER-By all accounts, this was a really bad (as in ill-conceived and poorly executed) war, and yet we have been there for 20 years without “winning” anything.
And now that President Biden is actually ending the debacle, the media and most of Congress seem to be blaming him.
CNN, MSNBC, and the like, what’s up? All of these news media had a TV general gravely saying that it was going to be bad news for anyone who helped the Americans in Afghanistan, and the Taliban are going to take over the whole country. The implication was that Biden’s decision to leave without taking care of those left behind, was his fault. How could he not take care of them? What the heck?
Fox news and their allies were in heaven attacking Biden, while forgetting President Trumps unimplemented decision to leave Afghanistan.
The Background
Since a large slice of Americans weren’t even born when this war started, let’s see how we got here.
Since they’re about as neutral as you will find these days, here’s Wikipedia’s description of how we got there:
“The War in Afghanistan is an ongoing war following the United States invasion of Afghanistan[62] that began when the United States and its allies successfully drove the Taliban from power in order to deny Al-Qaeda a safe base of operations in Afghanistan.[63][64] After the initial objectives were completed, a coalition of over 40 countries (including all NATO members) formed a security mission in the country called International Security Assistance Force (ISAF, succeeded by the Resolute Support Mission (RS) in 2014), of which certain members were involved in military combat allied with Afghanistan's government.[65] The war has afterward mostly consisted of Taliban insurgents[66] fighting against the Afghan Armed Forces and allied forces; the majority of ISAF/RS soldiers and personnel are American.[65] The war is code-named by the U.S. as Operation Enduring Freedom (2001–14) and Operation Freedom's Sentinel (2015–present);[67][68] it is the longest war in U.S. history.”
The Slosh of Money and Power
Lost in the current media reporting is President Trump’s attempts to end the Afgan war by negotiating with the Taliban. He forgot the basics of our military, as I pointed out some time ago, and the reality still stands.
I know that half my current friends weren’t even born during the Vietnam war era, so a quick recap. There were some important lessons learned by us, and you would think even Donald Trump got it, since he’s of that generation:
- Never assume that our government won’t get us embroiled in a truly stupid war, for internal political reasons, with no exit strategy, and with us as the cannon fodder.
- If you look at who goes to war, it was not the 1%. And it never will be. They can and will buy their way out of anything, including military service. How about those “bone spurs,” Mr. President? I don’t see you having any problem walking up and down the ramp of Air Force One.
- Never again will the Congress initiate a draft. The Vietnam War came unwound for two reasons. First, television, where the graphic pictures proved beyond a doubt that the war was ugly and endless, as opposed to the BS media coverage put out by the government. Second, and equally important, when middle-class America saw their sons being slaughtered in the swamps and rice paddies of Vietnam, that was it.
It was those middle class and affluent sons’ protests, and the outright rebellion of their parents when they discovered their children were being sent back to the U.S. in body bags -- supposedly to “win” against Communism -- that shut this travesty down.
So now we have a “volunteer army,” which simply means that the elites of America will be safe from military service unless they want to go for some personal reason, and conflicts will be handled by people with little voice or visibility.”
Look to who really controls the U.S. military, just look at the Pentagon, the nerve center of the military industrial complex.
Located in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., the building was designed by American architect George Bergstrom and built by contractor John McShain. Ground was broken on 11 September 1941, and the building was dedicated on 15 January 1943. General Brehon Somervell provided the major motivating power behind the project;[5] Colonel Leslie Groves was responsible for overseeing the project for the U.S. Army.
The Pentagon is the world's largest office building, with about 6.5 million square feet (150 acres; 60 ha) of floor space, of which 3.7 million sq ft (85 acres; 34 ha) are used as offices.[6][7] Some 23,000 military and civilian employees,[7] and another 3,000 non-defense support personnel, work in the Pentagon. It has five sides, five floors above ground, two basement levels, and five ring corridors per floor with a total of 17.5 miles (28.2 km)[7] of corridors. The central five-acre (2.0 ha) pentagonal plaza is nicknamed "ground zero" on the presumption that it would be a prime target in a nuclear war.[8]
That’s one heck of a lot of people who are working to justify their existence, especially with little real oversight by our Congress critters.”
Not to mention all the contractors and beneficiaries of the $700 billion dollars per year that Congress routinely passes in truly bipartisan votes. They all have lobbyists who are very effective, and I have to wonder to what extent their reach extends to the media who report all of our military news.
The Takeaway
It was really up to the Pentagon and the generals to figure out an exit strategy for the Afghan war, with their 26,000 people in the Pentagon. After all, they have plenty of experience in tracking the collateral damage to local people left behind in all of our wars.
So maybe, just maybe, the news media could focus on the military failure to have an exit strategy to the 20-year war. You know, one which included a plan for the local people who supported the United States. Instead of trying to lay it all off on President Biden.
(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.