The upcoming conclusion to the longest war in U.S. history is going to be far more complex than most people realize, a local retired general says of the military’s exit from Afghanistan next month.
The U.S., which began military action in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, is expected to leave the country by Aug. 31, 2021.
Retired two-star Air Force Major General Mark Pillar says he believes the U.S. did the right thing by going into Afghanistan after 9/11 to find and destroy terrorist training camps. Pillar, 73, also credits the U.S. for helping the Afghan people establish infrastructure, find new sources of water, build schools for both boys and girls and paying Afghan farmers to stop growing opium poppies.
All were tactical steps undertaken to gain local support in the country, according to retired Army chaplain Lt. Colonel Eric Erkkinen, a Columbus resident who spent two months providing support, counseling and care to troops at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan.
Part of the multi-faceted mission in Afghanistan has always been to win hearts and minds, Erkkinen and Pillar said.
“But how do you change the will of the Afghan people?” Pillar asked. “I’m convinced that is the bottom line.”
If you give Afghans the right to vote, many will support whoever promises to get foreign military personnel out of their country, Pillar said. And while the U.S. military usually takes action with the right intentions, “things can get squirrely and tensions can escalate,” he said.
“(The Afghan) culture has been going on for centuries,” Pillar said. “Then, we show up and try to convince them there is a better way of doing things. While it usually is better, they will continue to do things the way they’ve always done it unless something drastic happens.”
The outcome of the 10-year Soviet-Afghanistan War (1979-1989) illustrated that while a superpower can stay in Afghanistan for a lengthy period of time, the country’s residents “will just keep punching you in the nose” as they wait indefinitely for you to leave, Pillar said. The Russians finally learned that lesson and pulled out, he added.
One reason why fighting the Taliban is difficult is because the enemy doesn’t wear uniforms, Pillar said.
“It’s not like you can look at someone and say ‘Oh, he’s Taliban. We need to keep an eye on him,’” Pillar said. “The Taliban just blend in. It’s a very difficult type of warfare.”
Military operations become more dangerous when one realizes that respect for life among the Taliban is minuscule when compared to ours, Pillar said. As an example, he cites the U.S. military policy of “no soldier left behind,” which means military personnel risk their lives by retrieving the bodies of their fallen comrades.
“In contrast, some Afghans are not above using a pregnant woman as a suicide bomber,” Pillar said. “They believe that by sacrificing themselves, they will be rewarded in the afterlife and be considered a hero in their own village.”
Since the war began nearly 20 years, people have been asking Pillar when the U.S. would get out of Afghanistan, he said. But the retired general says the same question could be asked about U.S. military presence in Japan, Germany, England and Italy, Pillar said.
“We’ve maintained a military presence in all those places,” he said. “Some before World War II.”
It’s estimated the U.S. has about 800 military bases in more than 70 countries or territories, according to Politico. By contrast, Britain, France and Russia have only about 30 foreign bases.
Rather than serve as a police force for the world, Pillar see the U.S. utilizing United Nations coalition forces more in the future, and training our allies under threat, so they can eventually maintain their own government for the long term.
The Taliban’s lightning-fast advance to control more territory in Afghanistan is raising alarms from Russia to China. But the U.S.-backed Afghan government denies the Sunni Muslim insurgent group’s claim that they have taken 85% of most of the country, describing the Taliban’s statement as propaganda.
In addition, authorities in Kabul still control most, if not all, of the 34 provincial capitals, and the Afghan Defense Ministry has stepped up airstrikes against Taliban fighters in recent weeks.
Chris Fitzsimmons, a former commander of the Veterans of Foreign War Post 1987 in Columbus, says he does not believe the pullout of U.S. troops will be as complete as many think it will be.
“I bet we’re still going to have people there,” said Fitzsimmons, who served two tours of duty in the Middle East. “They just won’t leave them high and dry.”
The departure that is expected to conclude at the end of next month will not include the thousand troops maintained in the country “off the books,” that include elite Army Rangers working for both the Pentagon and the CIA, according to Pentagon sources quoted in the New York Times.
More troops will remain positioned in neighboring countries, and attack planes will be within rapid reach, forewarned of “insurgent fighters” by armed surveillance drones, according to Dr. Priya Satia, international history professor at Stanford University. Civilian contractors may also play a role on the ground, she wrote in an article appearing in Time magazine.
The military reports 2,448 U.S. service members died in Afghanistan during the war. They included Army Sgt. Jonathon M. Hunter of Columbus in August 2017 and Marine Sgt. Jeremy McQueary of Nashville in February 2010.
And after $1 trillion in spending, some Americans are asking whether the U.S. has accomplished its mission in Afghanistan. Several military personnel and civilians say that happened 10 years ago, when 9/11 mastermind and Al Queda Osama Bin Laden was killed by U.S. military forces on May 2, 2011.
But Erkkinen said there were many different goals and objectives involved in the tactical, operational and strategic aspects of military planning in any way. Unless your are a strategic planner, you simply follow your orders and don’t talk about goals and objectives, he said.
“I’m not sure if the political objectives were met there or not,” Erkkinen said. “It’s a complicated, multi-faceted mission.”
One of two local Afghanistan veterans who declined to be interviewed for the story also said he didn’t feel qualified to make a personal evaluation of the war.
On July 8, Biden reiterated a statement he made in April. “The United States did what we went to do in Afghanistan: to get the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 and to deliver justice to Osama Bin Laden, and to degrade the terrorist threat to keep Afghanistan from becoming a base from which attacks could be continued against the United States,” the president said.
