Perpetual War in Afghanistan

The Afghanistan War is the longest war in United States history.

Although there may be some public debate over the tactics and methods the Obama administration may be pursuing in its execution of the Afghan war, it is largely agreed upon by many anti-imperial scholars such as Andrew Bacevich, that John McCain would most likely have pursued the same course of action in Afghanistan.

Allowed to continue due to political pressure from security and defense corporations that have a vested interest in the never-ending conflict in Afghanistan, after nine years, 1,100 American deaths, and over 338 billion dollars, there is no public debate over ending the war in Afghanistan. Instead, the The Obama administration has decided to begin publicly walking away from what it once touted as key deadlines in the war in Afghanistan in an effort to de-emphasize President Barack Obama's pledge that he'd begin withdrawing U.S. forces in July 2011. This public relations blitz by the Obama administration is another chilling example of the enormous power the Pentagon and the national security state apparatus have within Washington DC.

As reported by the Christian Science Monitor,

Senior US military officials are increasingly deemphasizing the July 2011 deadline set by President Obama earlier this year for beginning US troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, instead talking up a 2014 date cited by President Hamid Karzai as the year he would like Afghans to take over their own security throughout the country.

Although this may sound like US military forces may withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014, do not count on it. It merely means that the US forces will withdraw to huge sprawling military bases like Kandahar Air Force Base, which is so large it has nine separate bus routes operating within the base. While US cities are cutting public mass transit budgets, military bases like Camp Anacanda in Iraq or Kandahar Air Force Base are see double digit budget increases in their mass transit budgets. After nearly a decade of war, close to 700 U.S., allied, and Afghan military bases dot Afghanistan. Moreover, if history is any clue like the bases in Germany, Italy, Japan, and South Korea -- once built, these bases have a tendency toward permanency that a cessation of hostilities, or even outright peace, has a way of not altering.

Just like during the Cold War, when negative stories about American allies were downplayed, like 25 percent of Italians voting for the Communist Party of Italy even though the US was supposed to be fighting the spread of Communism , the suppression of negative news stories associated with the Afghanistan government are being downplayed. Some of the more embarrassing stories related to the Afghanistan government include allies of Afghan President Hamid Karzai stealing millions of dollars from Kabul Bank, and corruption charges surrounding the last two elections in Afghanistan.

Instead of discussing if the Bush era tax cuts should expire, which they should, members of Congress should be discussing how to end wasting billions of taxpayers dollars in Afghanistan. According to recent information posted by Nick Turse, the associate editor of TomDispatch.com and an award-winning journalist,

Between 2001 and 2009, according to the Afghan government, the country has received $36 billion in grants and loans from donor nations, with the United States disbursing some $23 billion of it. U.S. taxpayers have anted up another $338 billion to fund the war and occupation. Yet from poverty indexes to risk-of-rape assessments, from childhood mortality figures to drug-use stats, just about every available measure of Afghan wellbeing paints a grim picture of a country in a persistent state of humanitarian crisis, often involving reconstruction and military failures on an epic scale. Pick a measurement affecting ordinary Afghans and the record since November 2001 when Kabul fell to Allied forces is likely to show stagnation or setbacks and, almost invariably, suffering.

The basic safety of women in Afghanistan in, and well beyond, Taliban-controlled areas has in recent years proven a dismal subject even though the Americans haven’t left. According to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), for instance, 87% of women are subject to domestic abuse. A 2009 report by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) found that rape “is an everyday occurrence in all parts of the country” and called it a “human rights problem of profound proportions.” That report continued:

"Women and girls are at risk of rape in their homes and in their communities, in detention facilities and as a result of traditional harmful practices to resolve feuds within the family or community... In the northern region for example, 39 percent of the cases analyzed by UNAMA Human Rights, found that perpetrators were directly linked to power brokers who are, effectively, above the law and enjoy immunity from arrest as well as immunity from social condemnation."

Afghan women are reportedly turning to suicide as their only solution.

A June report by Sudabah Afzali of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting noted that, according to officials in Herat Province, “cases of suicide amongst women… have increased by 50 per cent over the last year.” Sayed Naim Alemi, the director of the regional hospital in Herat, noted that 85 cases of attempted suicide recorded in the previous six months had involved women setting themselves on fire or ingesting poison. In 57 of the cases, the women had died.

While the United States led mission to Afghanistan appears to be have failed at every social and humanitarian level, according a recent speech by U.S. General Brig. Gen. John “Mick” Nicholson, the one category the United States is excelling in Afghanistan is the killing of “militants” and “enemy combatants”. As reported by the Christian Science Monitor,

The director of the Pentagon’s Pakistan/Afghanistan Coordination Cell, Brig. Gen. John “Mick” Nicholson, said at an Army symposium in October that he believes it would be possible for Afghans to take over security responsibilities in their country “by the end of 2014.” He also noted that strikes by US special operations forces are continuing at an “unprecedented” pace with “a tremendous amount of success.”

“Every 24 hours, on average, we’re killing or capturing three to five midlevel enemy leaders and 24 enemy fighters,” Nicholson said. This, in turn, has “lowered the average age of enemy leadership because they’re getting killed so quickly. It’s severely disrupting their command and control in country.”

The statement by the Pentagon’s Pakistan/Afghanistan Coordination Cell, Brig. Gen. John Nicholson, appears to contradict everything that about the Afghan security forces needing until 2014 to secure their own country as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai declare.

Understanding the dubious character of Hamid Karzai and the impartial viewpoint of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the opinion of Brig. General John Nicholson appears to be the more credible analysis of the security situation in Afghanistan.

The Perpetual War in Afghanistan will continue not for the reasons given by corrupt politicians like Hamid Karzai or the politicians who protect them such as Sec of Defense Robert Gates , but to give all the people profiting from this unjust war another four years to become more wealthier.