Trump’s Gambit- Afghanistan Reconsidered

Trump’s Gambit- Afghanistan Reconsidered

It is a decision that flies in the face of one-time candidate Donald Trump. Once eyeballing the frustration of a seventeen-year long venture in Afghanistan that has cost America much, and shown little, Trump had intended to withdraw our forces from America’s longest-ever war, and bring them back to kith and kin. After all, despite the number of troops in theater, achieving anything of lasting consequence in Afghanistan has been fleeting in these seventeen long years.

Such is the inevitable we suppose, when the United States goes into a hostile and foreign land with the intent to replicate itself- its morals, its diversity, its tolerance and into a culture and society that will have none of it. Afghanistan is, far and away, the worst of the Islamic states when it comes to harboring terrorists, as more than twenty Islamic terrorist organizations have established presence into the country, including the remnants of Al-Qaida, ISIS and, of course, the Taliban. Trying to build a representative democracy in such a place was the unfortunate folly of George W. Bush, and Barack Obama made it all worse announcing in advance a date that the United States would withdraw its forces- thus ensuring that the Taliban would merely have to “wait it out” to join with their fellow terrorists and turn the Islamic state into a rabidly-radical Islamic theocracy bent on war against the west.

Even worse than attempting to “nation build” Presidents Bush and Obama squandered many billions of dollars and many thousands of American lives making the same mistake that Lyndon Johnson made in Viet Nam- fighting a war remotely-controlled from Washington, rather than allowing in-theatre commanders to do what they are trained to do, and allowing them to win a war, as quickly as possible, while sacrificing as few American lives as possible. At least Bush had the brains not to inform our enemies in advance of when and where bombing runs would take place, yet that is precisely how Barack Obama thought war should be waged.

In a word- lunacy.

Into this mess, President Donald J. Trump has waded, with an initial instinct to stand by his campaign rhetoric and quit Afghanistan. Yet smart enough to give ear to experienced generals who have been to Afghanistan, who know what is needed to achieve victory, and whose expertise had been stymied by the prior administration to wage war as they otherwise know how to do, Trump has reassessed the situation and has decided to remain in Afghanistan, but with a new twist that could prove pivotal when it all shakes out.

The mission to rebuild Afghanistan as a unified democratic nation has thus been rendered asunder. The new mission, to simply kill terrorists wherever they may hide and destroy their networks, has now been launched and Trump has given field commanders the authority to pursue these ends, without restriction. If terrorists flee into neighboring Pakistan, as they have been doing all these many years, that country will have the opportunity to either join in the coordinated pursuit of these terrorists, or entertain the idea of India entering into the fray- something they dread more than anything else.

Wisely, the president has also refused to provide specifics as to troop numbers and timelines, essentially saying that all will be determined based upon conditions on the ground. In other words, the mission is now achievement-focused instead of being calendar-focused. While such a stratagem can seem to be vague and open-ended, Trump has emulated former presidents, like Lincoln and Roosevelt, who were focused on victory at all costs without limitations of time or, for that matter, conduct. Mindful that Obama’s sudden and premature withdrawal from Iraq proved to be disastrous, as it rendered all of our previous efforts moot, and created ISIS, Trump realized that to do the same in Afghanistan would prove just as disastrous and might lead to another 9/11. His “take” is that you either kill the rats there, once and for all, or risk them eventually coming here.

Admittedly, it is a gambit for the new president. If Afghanistan continues to be the quagmire that it has been for seventeen years, Trump’s decision to continue our presence there will prove to be his downfall. Yet, if his release of Obama’s leash on the military commanders lets loose a deadly force on terrorists who have made Afghanistan their horrible haven, Trump will have achieved something that will etch his name in the annals of history as the one who finally defeated the black flag of Radical Islam.

The late owner of the Oakland Raiders, Al Davis, once smilingly told his team to “Just win, baby.” In the same sense, President Donald Trump has issued the same order to his generals…

…and it might just work, God willing.

-Drew Nickell, 22 August 2017

© 2017 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.

author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
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