The war in Afghanistan is the longest military action in American history, with no end in sight.
Not long ago president Trump announced his intent to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria, sparking immediate criticism from both Republicans and
Democrats.
More recently Trump has discussed a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, as well.
Against this background, it is downright chilling to learn that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (together with the bipartisan support of senators Graham, Blunt, Burr, Romney, Ernst, Inhofe, Rubio, Sasse, Fischer, Grassley, Johnson, Shelby, Tillis, Cornyn, Sullivan, Wicker, Lankford, Young, and Boozman) has inserted amendment (#65) into the recently approved Senate bill 1.
McConnell’s amendment, in effect, makes it nearly impossible for any president, now or in the future, to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and just about anywhere else in the Middle East.
Among other things, the bill:
“calls upon the Administration to certify that conditions have been met for the enduring defeat of al Qaeda and ISIS before initiating any significant withdrawal of United States forces from Syria or Afghanistan.” (emphasis mine)
In other words, we will never leave these places.
Exactly what is required for such conditions to be met? How does one “certify” that al Qaeda and ISIS have met their “enduring defeat”?
How can anyone ever guarantee the final, permanent defeat of a revolutionary movement fueled by religious commitments?
The answer is simple. You can’t. As all those Senators well know.
Mitch and his war-mongering cronies have passed a bill that opens a permanent line of protest for the Joint Chiefs, generals, admirals, arms manufacturers, intelligence agencies and every politician with a weapons company in their district to effectively object any time a future president tries to withdraw our troops from the quagmire of America’s wars around the world.
But cheer up. U.S. weapons companies and civilian death rates, known as collateral damage, around the world will thrive.
A truly good and well researched and thoroughly documented book about this permanent war policy is Matthias Chang’s “Brainwashed for War: Programmed to Kill”, published in the US in 2006. This is all by design, and perhaps cannot be changed, sorry to say.
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll be sure to check it out.