I know I have mentioned this point before, but it needs to be said again because it’s important and because too many people, including people in important positions, don’t seem to understand it.
In responding to former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ new book, the White House released a statement, from National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden, which said in part:
“The President deeply appreciates Bob Gates’ service as Secretary of Defense, and his lifetime of service to our country. Deliberations over our policy on Afghanistan have been widely reported on over the years, and it is well known that the President has been committed to achieving the mission of disrupting, dismantling and defeating al Qaeda, while also ensuring that we have a clear plan for winding down the war, which will end this year. …” (emphasis added)
No, the war in Afghanistan will not end this year. We don’t get to decide, by ourselves, when the war in Afghanistan will end. Wars end when both sides agree that they are over. Our help to the Afghan forces and to the Afghan people may end this year, but that doesn’t mean the war will end – unless you have such a self-centric view of the world that, if the United States isn’t involved, then the war isn’t happening – or at least doesn’t count.
This is important to say because too many people, including a lot of people on the liberal/Democratic side, seem to think we can end wars by just getting out. Maybe we can end our involvement by getting out, but that doesn’t mean the war is over. The war still continues. Fighting still happens. People still die. Saying the over is over just because we left is a pretty selfish view – and wrong.
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ADDENDUM (1/10/14 1:40 pm): At the same time I was writing this post about Afghanistan, Peter Baker of The New York Times was writing this about Iraq:
“For two years, President Obama has boasted that he accomplished what his predecessor had not. ‘I ended the war in Iraq,’ he has told audience after audience. But a resurgence by Islamic militants in western Iraq has reminded the world that the war is anything but over.
What Mr. Obama ended was the United States military presence in Iraq, but the fighting did not stop when the last troops left in 2011; it simply stopped being a daily concern for most Americans. While attention shifted elsewhere, the war raged on and has now escalated to its most violent phase since the depths of the occupation.”
UPDATE (1/11/14 11:15 am): I corrected a typo in the third setnece of the third paragraph by adding "mean".
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