Ukraine - An Education

Like most things in this world the struggle between Russia and Ukraine over the Crimean Peninsula is not as black and white as one might think.   Ukraine has a long history and its population is ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse.

This morning I awoke to news that the United States is deploying the destroyer USS Truxton to the Black Sea and twelve F-16 fighters to Poland as part of an effort to increase pressure on Vladimir Putin.

As I read the news I sighed in dismay at seeing yet another "crisis" develop and our response appear to be one of reaction rather than strategy.

I was very pleased to later read an opinion piece by Henry Kissinger in the Washington Post titled: How the Ukraine crisis ends.   Kissinger lays out the issues of both the immediate crisis, the failure of the State Department to think and act strategically, and the path to resolution in one fell swoop. Kissinger's opinion piece should be mandatory reading for all Americans, but particularly for the White House, the Departments of State and Defense, and Congress.

I encourage you to click the link above to Kissinger's piece to receive an education on the Ukraine - Russia conflict.

Afghanistan - Announce an Immediate Withrdawal

The United States should announce immediately and without equivocation an end to its presence in Afghanistan and execute a full withdrawal by December 2014.

President Obama made a personal phone call to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on February 25th in the administration’s latest attempt to secure Karzai’s signature on an agreed bilateral security agreement to retain an estimated 10,000 to 13,000 U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan through 2024. Karzai rejected the personal entreaty of the President of the United States.

The president’s personal call follows multiple past personal requests by the most senior U.S. officials who proclaimed and then extended a deadline for Karzai’s signature.   

The Washington Post reports President Obama agreed in his conversation with Karzai to wait until after Afghan elections in April to negotiate with the winner of the election.   The President of the United States groveling to a corrupt, unreliable, and ungrateful “partner” after expending thousands of lives and limbs and over $600 billion only to be rejected is an embarrassment to the people of the United States.  

The war in Afghanistan is the longest in U.S. history. More than 2,300 service members are dead, nearly 20,000 wounded, and hundreds of billions of dollars have thus far been expended. Another 10 years of security and economic aid will not markedly increase U.S. national security, but will surely result in more dead and wounded personnel, and great expense.

Polls indicate the American people do not want a continued military presence in Afghanistan after the December 2014 withdrawal deadline. A CNN/ORC International poll in December indicates just 17 percent of Americans support the war.

U.S. forces attacked Afghanistan in 2001 to advance a vital national security interest — to stop, deter, or prevent further attacks on U.S. soil following the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The original mission to eliminate the al-Qaida footprint in Afghanistan was accomplished.

Those supportive of a continuation of our presence in Afghanistan operate under an assumption that through continuing military presence and security assistance we can delay a return of Taliban control and potential terror threat from the country.  Simultaneously, economic aid and political and cultural development assistance can transform Afghanistan culturally.

The U.S. has in the past pursued misguided strategies to transform ancient cultures and societies to peace-loving liberal democracies with a combination of security assistance and aid. There is no evidence that this strategy works without complete dominance of the society and overwhelming strength, such as in post-World War II Germany and Japan.

Clearly, the U.S. has an interest in advancing democracy, human rights and other moral interests in the world. But it cannot and should not make open ended commitments that place our military in harm's way, and provide multi-billion dollar aid and assistance to corrupt regimes, for social agendas.

Misguided political strategies to transform societies result in misguided military strategies to win the hearts and minds of the society. The counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, like that in Vietnam, is only minimally effective and carries a much higher risk to our military personnel. Rules of engagement that flow from the counterinsurgency place severe restrictions on our forces to defend themselves. The bilateral security agreement with Afghanistan will create more restrictive rules of engagement and further endanger U.S. personnel.

The human tragedy endured by our military in Afghanistan is immense. Some service members have served as many as seven combat tours since 2001. They and their families will feel the effects for decades. The families who have lost a husband, son, father or sibling who gave the last full measure of devotion to their country endure the burden directly, completely and permanently. Our nation has asked too much of too few.

The U.S. has achieved its primary objective in Afghanistan. An additional 10 years of the all-too-frequent notifications of the death or wounding of our service personnel is not worth the pursuit of a futile goal. Secretary of State John Kerry, of all people, should know this. It was he who sat before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971 as a new veteran of the Vietnam War and asked of our government, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

It is time to bring our service members home and end our military presence in Afghanistan.