2 Trillion dollars later and hundreds of thousands dead or displaced, the world is predictably less safe for the west than it was - and jihadism is much more entrenched.
With little fanfare, the United States and NATO formally ended the longest war in U.S. history with a ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday, leaving observers to wonder what—if anything—was achieved.
With little fanfare, the United States and NATO formally ended the longest war in U.S. history with a ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday, leaving observers to wonder what—if anything—was achieved.
Over 13 years, U.S.-led war in Afghanistan claimed the lives of about 3,500 foreign troops (at least 2,224 of them American soldiers) and an estimated 21,000 Afghan civilians; most experts agree that the country is as violent as ever and that the death toll will continue to rise. Many say the war is over in name only.
In late September, the U.S. and Afghanistan signed a controversial Bilateral Security Agreement that allows for U.S. training, funding, and arming of the Afghan military; establishes long-term U.S. military presence in Afghanistan with access to numerous bases and installations in the country; and extends immunity to U.S. service members under Afghan law.
There will still be roughly 11,000 American troops in Afghanistan next year as part of the Resolute Support mission to train, advise and assist Afghanistan’s roughly 350,000 security forces.
Writing for The Guardian, Will Hutton argues: "At a meta strategic level, the U.S. was wrong. The war against terrorism developed by George W Bush after 09/11 is a great failure. The reflex reaction to a heinous act of mass terror was not to outsmart, out-think and marginalize a new enemy - it was to get even by being even more violent, lawless and vicious. This lead NATO into the Afghanistan quagmire and a coalition into the other quagmire; Iraq.
2 Trillion dollars later and hundreds of thousands dead or displaced, the world is predictably less safe for the west than it was - and jihadism is much more entrenched.
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