One of the major and never-ending gaps of American policy in Afghanistan is a lack of coordination between US military and civilian officials. The US military and State Department are often at loggerheads over issues in Afghanistan, and the recent statements of Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley are a clear example. While American negotiators led by Zalmay Khalilzad were engaged in talks aimed at finding a political settlement for Afghan conflict with the Taliban for almost a year, Gen. Milley has recently said in an interview that the US military mission in Afghanistan is not yet over, persisting that American troops will remain in the country for several more years.
The US is seeking a negotiated settlement to the war in Afghanistan on the one hand and American diplomats continue to stress that the conflict has no military solution, but one the other hand, a senior US military official contradicts the stance. This contradiction spells suspicions of American intentions regarding the settlement of Afghan conflict on the one side and signals frictions in the US government on Afghanistan on the other hand. While President Trump and the US diplomatic apparatus have become weary of the Afghan war, but the military generals still seem not poised to end the war.
America’s conflicting signals on peace and war in Afghanistan strengthen the concerns that the negotiated settlement of Afghan conflict is not yet a priority for Washington, and some American officials continue to seek their interests in the war that has turned into a source of revenue for some Americans who are not ready to lose the source. The United States, particularly President Trump who is eyeing another term, needs to adopt a clear, unified stance on peace and war in Afghanistan and not fall victim to the conspiracies of US generals. Both Afghans and ordinary Americans want the war to end. Neither Americans want their sons and daughters to be killed in this endless war and more of their taxpayer dollars spent nor can Afghans anymore tolerate the deaths of their loved ones. If the United States has really come around to the conclusion that the Afghan war has no military solution, it should not try to solve a political problem with the use of force. The primacy of use of force over diplomacy remains to be a major culprit for the protraction of war in Afghanistan.
