A US Perspective Long in the Making
Standing in the Roosevelt Room, President Obama spoke on October 15th, 2015 in support of his plans to maintain a small presence of American troops in Afghanistan. In his speech, President Obama address the American people, stating, “I know that many of you have grown weary of this conflict. As you are well aware, I do not support the idea of endless war, and I have repeatedly argued against marching into open-ended military conflicts that do not serve our core security interests. Yet given what’s at stake in Afghanistan, and the opportunity for a stable and committed ally...I am firmly convinced that we should make this extra effort.”
The President’s more optimistic position on the outcomes of retaining troops in the region represents the most current perspective in a long string of shifting sentiments about the US’s involvement in Afghanistan and the Middle East. The popular opinion of today has evolved over the course of this lengthy war and its story of how we arrived today requires an examination of how American’s felt in the past. Concurrently, the adjustment in US foreign policy and its objectives in the country have played huge factors on how Americans view the prospects of the war’s outcome.
In the aftermath of 9/11 a call to protect our country was put on hyper focus. Popular sentiment cried for the terrorists behind the attacks to be caught and killed. The events carried out on 9/11 engendered a foreign policy that would support the United States in its War on Terror. However, what this did was frame each threat to the United States as something that could be eradicated with force. Consequently, this mentality kept the United States from being able to objectively see the real issues at hand. These issues the United States faced were of ideology, not just terrorists, and ideology is something that can’t be muted with firearms. In some ways this foreign policy approach, the perspective of using only force to fight the terror, hurt American efforts. At the same time, there was a need for military operations to protect civilians from terrorists, and these efforts led to the death of Osama bin Laden. It is maybe that in the 2000s the mentality of only waging force to solve our conflicts led to a more brutish perspective on the issue.
With over a decade now separating us from the horrible event that struck our nation and with al-Qaeda being less of an eminent threat, the United States is realizing its role in the region is changing and thus a shift in the perspective of its purposes in Afghanistan is also transforming. To be sure, the safety and security of Americans and the fear of facing another terrorist attack at home is still very much present. This affects America’s view of Afghanistan as the President stated in his speech, “As Commander-in-Chief, I will not allow Afghanistan to be used as a safe haven for terrorists to attack our nation again.” But in many aspects, America is reevaluating its relationship with the country to be one that veers away from violence as an effective way to make change and embraces other diplomatic avenues.
The United States began the narrative between the two countries by only focusing on the military aspects of the war and seeking justice for the victims of the terrorist attacks at a large human cost. Today with Obama’s decision to decrease the troops, the United States has had to take a step back and consider more of the bigger picture. With its military efforts are not needed as heavily anymore, America is turning its attention to helping facilitate state building and making Afghanistan more stable. The progress is slow, but with this new perspective the end of the war is not only closer in sight but its damages will not weigh so heavy on either country anymore.
References:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/10/15/statement-president-afghanistan
The Accidental Guerrilla by David Kilcullen
