Trump Announcement Means Afghan Conflict Might Turn Into the 'Forever War' We All Feared
We Could Now Be in Afghanistan for Good
Volume 90%
By Jared Harris
Published August 30, 2019 at 1:41pm
As the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks nears, it’s beginning to look like the conflict that sprang from that tragedy, the war in Afghanistan, will go on indefinitely.
President Donald Trump hinted at this Thursday when revealing his plans for troop levels in that country.
Speaking to Fox News radio, Trump explained his administration is busy working on a reduction of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Currently, roughly 14,000 military members are there.
Trump is working on dropping that number to 8,600.
Even at that low level, our country’s future in Afghanistan remains murky.
“You have to keep a presence,” the president said. “We’re going to keep a presence there. We’re reducing that presence very substantially and we’re going to always have a presence.” (Emphasis ours)
“We’re not fighting a war over there,” Trump later added. “We’re just policemen."
He said the U.S. could win the war quickly, but he didn’t want a body count in the millions.
When the war in Afghanistan first began, it saw massive support from U.S. citizens still reeling from unprecedented terrorist attacks. Victories in the opening months of the war saw terror training camps obliterated and the Taliban thrown from power.
Then everything slowed down.
Foreign jihadis inundated Afghanistan. Engagements with U.S. troops gave the surviving extremists valuable combat experience, which was then used to sow terror in other countries.
As the years dragged on, America became involved in more military conflicts across the Middle East and North Africa as part of the expanded war on terror.
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Poster Comment:
Say it isn't so. The Soviet Union broke up after their excursion into Afghanistan.