Plans call for American forces to be fully out of Afghanistan by May 2021.
Unless President Donald Trump suddenly has another idea, that is. Like getting them all out before Election Day.
The Pentagon will soon be briefing the president on his various options for Afghanistan. One of the possibilities, which is part of the February peace plan that had been heralded as such a turning point, would have U.S. forces remaining in the turbulent land for roughly the next 12 months. But military planners are also prepared for Trump to look for an earlier exit. Specifically, by Nov. 3, when voters will be deciding whether to give Trump four more years in office.
Those of a certain age simply cannot remember a time when the United States didn’t have forces inside Afghanistan. After all, the U.S.-led coalition launched its invasion on Oct. 7, 2001. In other words, it’ll soon enough be 19 years since we began the so-called war on terrorism that was a product of the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
Simply put, we didn’t invade Afghanistan, which had provided safe harbor for al-Qaida, the perpetrators of the attack, just because we felt like it. We were responding, and we did so with a strong bombing campaign with allied forces from Britain, supported by France, Canada, Germany, Australia and others.
It was, unlike the ill-advised invasion of Iraq 17 months later, a response that was widely seen as not merely appropriate, but also as absolutely necessary. Unlike the invasion of Iraq, which was a war of choice, we went into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan because we had to.
No one wanted to be there nearly two decades later. But we had a job to do, and leaving before it was finished would be to cut and run, which isn’t the American way. Or isn’t supposed to be.
But Trump has never demonstrated that he cares a whit about what America stands for. Instead, he cares only about what makes him look good, what helps him politically.
And if he believes that getting U.S. forces fully out of Afghanistan before the balloting on Nov. 3 will help him at the polls, then that could well be the course of action he foolishly decides to take.
