US Lost War In Afghanistan:

Aren't There Lessons That Could Be Garnered From Past Military Involvements Abroad?

By Ali Al-hail

ccun.org, January 4, 2010

"We are not winning, which means we are losing and as we are losing, the message traffic out there to (
insurgency) recruits keeps getting better and better and more keep coming," Mullen said. "That's why we need the 30,000 and in particular, and you are the lead on this, getting in there this year, over the next 12 months, almost in lightning bolt fashion" (Mullen, bluntly, told U.S. soldiers, at Ft. Campbell, Ky, on Tuesday, December 8, 2009.)
Recent military observations (including those from the U.S), were reported to have come up to a closing consensus, i.e., the United States of America, has already lost the war in Afghanistan. As a result, rumors and speculations, began to flow that, the U.S. currently in talks with the 'terrorists', i.e., the Taliban.
 
Apparently, the U.S. has become to believe that, could Taliban be defeated, they would've been defeated, since Bush era's brutal war, since October 7, 2001. Moreover, there have been talks of planning with the Taliban, a strategy for a face saving exit.
 
Adm. Mike Mullen, the U.S.'s highest ranking military commander frankly, told U.S.'s troops at Ft. Campbell, Ky, on Tuesday, December 8, 2009, "We are not winning, which means we are losing and as we are losing, the message traffic out there to (insurgency) recruits keeps getting better and better and more keep coming,...That's why we need the 30,000 and in particular, and you are the lead on this, getting in there this year, over the next 12 months, almost in lightning bolt fashion."

Yet; in an article titled "War In Afghanistan Is Lost," Edward I Koch *, (2009,) stated that, " Everything that can go wrong is going wrong in Afghanistan. The situation is so bad militarily…" that, according to Koch, The New York Times reported on April 12, "Taliban insurgents have such a strong grip on such a broad area — in particular the southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Oruzgan and Zabul — that even with the anticipated arrival of an additional 30,000 American troops this year, the elections will not take place in some areas, several Western and Afghan officials in Kabul said."

Having said that, however, it seems that, the U.S. lost the war long prior to Mullen's story. Two years earlier, Gwynne Dyer* (2007), attempted to answer, in an article "How the U.S. lost the war in Afghanistan." According to him, "in This week { October 7, 2007{ is the sixth anniversary of the start of U.S. air strikes against al-Qaeda and its Taliban hosts in Afghanistan. It was a very clever politico-military operation, and by December of 2001 all of Afghanistan was under the control of the United States and its local allies for a total cost of 12 American dead. Then, for no good reason, it fell apart, and now }2007{ the war is lost."

The war is not just lost but, the U.S. and its allies, are seemingly, determined conceitedly, to get stuck in the Afghani quandary. Many argue, the war would last for years and years to come perceivably, on a false hope that, the U.S. and its NATO's allies, one day, might defeat Taliban. It's the West's typical pride, as usual. A reminder of past war regretting history revisiting. There were precedence of such an arrogant pride, e.g., Korean War, and Vietnam. One presumes, as do many that, the same military thinking, in Afghanistan and Iraq, more or less, looks as a reminisces from that revisiting past      
 
To confuse the U.S.'s taxpayer further, Obama has already committed 20,000 troops back in February, and announced another 30,000 increase in Afghanistan, lately. Analysts assume that the U.S. is going to have soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq for at least another 5 years, probably longer.
 
Now, since the war is lost in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite vested interests, denial, concealing and confusion, a big question arises: What the U.S. has learnt from its past military involvements abroad, is that it has learnt NOTHING. 
 
Between 1798 – 2009, the United States Of America militarily, intervened 234 times abroad, in one way or another, including launching wars on other nations. Chronically, they are: The War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States, the Mexican War of 1846, the Spanish American War of 1898, World War I declared in 1917, World War II declared in 1941, 1798 to 1800 war with France, the First Barbary War (also, known as the First Barbary Coast War, or the Tripolitan war) from 1801 to 1805; (interestingly, was the first of two wars fought between the United States of America (with limited aid from a small Swedish fleet) and the North African Arab states known collectively as the Barbary States. These were the independent Sultanates of Morocco, and the three Regencies of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, which were self-governed entities technically, part of the Ottoman Empire;) the Second Barbary War of 1815 (also, known as the Algerian war;) the Korean War of 1950-53; the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1973; and the First Arab Gulf War of 1991, the 2001 war  on Afghanistan, and the second Gulf war of 2003 (see for example Ellen Collier , * and Wikipedia. *)
 
Whatever the reasons of all those wars, including recurring ones in Afghanistan and Iraq arguably, the United States, on one hand, since its inception in 1492, has been brutally, violent towards other nations (including Native Americans.) On the other hand, the United States conceivably, cannot survive, as many argue without an external war. Most of these wars especially, since the rise of the U.N. during 1945, the U.S. and its allies unilaterally, declared wars on other sovereign states, without a U.N. mandate in most cases.
 
Another question also, arises here, as to why a Democrat president (who is supposed to be the LEADER) should listen to the war drummers, repeating more or less, the same mistakes of the past wars?
 
One presumes as do many, whether in Afghanistan , Iraq, or even helping the Yemeni army against the Houthis, the U.S. sustains, (despite public rhetoric) serving Israel's interests in the Middle East. Just as a reminder, the Houthis's banner reads: "Allah the greatest, Death to Israel…Death to America…"   
 
Reference Notes:
 
* Ellen C. Collier, Specialist in U.S. Foreign Policy,

Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division
Washington DC: Congressional Research Service -- Library of Congress -- October 7, 1993

* Gwynne Dyer, October 12, nZ. Herald.co.nz
 
* Edward I Koch, Newsmax.com, April 13, 2009
 
* Wikipedia, the free ensyclopedia
 
 
Professor, Dr. Ali Al-Hail, Professor of Mass Communication, Twice Fulbright

Award Winner, Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Vice-President Of Qatar Fulbright Group, CSR Award Judge, Psychosomatics writer, Management Trainer, and Board Member of AUSACE, ASC, IABD, NEBAA, BEA, IMDA and EAJMC American Associations.