Indigenous forces were key in both the early days of the Afghanistan war and the operations against the Islamic State in the Middle East. Afghanistan's Northern Alliance opposition in the Panjshir Valley proved capable in and gave the U. A fledgling anti-Taliban resistance in Panjshir has now been snuffed out as would-be opposition leaders fled into neighboring countries.
The strategic difficulties with continuing military operations in Afghanistan, and the grim terrorism assessments, came as Congress and the Pentagon wrestled with the legacy of the year war. The question is what would prompt the military to go back in, and whether it would take another attack on the U.
Or would it require a steady drumbeat of attacks and atrocities like those committed by the Islamic State in the vacuum left in northern Iraq and war-torn Syria during the last decade? Follow him on Twitter StephenLosey.
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Capitol on Jan. The committees also found the Mar-a-Lago members exerted dominance over White House staff who were tasked with implementing While the involvement of Saudi and Israeli fighters in the same mission is significant, that development does not necessarily A SpaceX rocket carried four astronauts into orbit Wednesday night, including the th person to reach space in 60 years.
Armistice Day remembrances have been observed worldwide after the coronavirus pandemic wiped out ceremonies last year to mark Military News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The war in Afghanistan sucked in enormous resources.
What was planned as a short-term reconstruction mission turned into a full-blown war. Camp Bastion grew to the size of Reading. Its perimeter wall was more than 20 miles long.
Its 2. At the height of the fighting, there were more than flights a day. The legacy of the British campaign is harder to determine. British strategy was never clear.
Schools, hospitals, roads, reservoirs and power generation aimed to help the Afghans become economically invested in stability. Agricultural projects also became a priority in order to persuade farmers to grow alternatives to opium. But the fighting remained heavy, despite large-scale operations designed to drive the insurgents out of Helmand. Public opinion in the UK increasingly turned against the war.
The British began to invest heavily in the training and mentoring of the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police, so that they would take more responsibility for the security situation in Helmand and the country as a whole.
But what was the result? The war in Afghanistan cost the lives of British servicemen and women, exceeding the death toll of the Falklands War in Total deaths of coalition forces Britain, USA and allies totalled 3, A further estimated 2, British military and civilian personnel were wounded in action.
They killed British soldiers, accounting for almost half of all British deaths there. IEDs were made from a variety of ordinary materials that were hard to detect. As a result, they were particularly deadly to soldiers on foot patrol and transport convoys. Towards the end of the war, British personnel were responsible for training Afghan troops to locate and render IEDs safe. Ordinary Americans tended to forget about it, and it received measurably less oversight from Congress than the Vietnam War did.
But its death toll is in the many tens of thousands. And because the U. Percentage of U. American service members killed in Afghanistan through April: 2, In my view, we only have one: to make sure Afghanistan can never be used again to launch an attack on our homeland. Remember why we went to Afghanistan in the first place? Because we were attacked by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda on September 11th, , and they were based in Afghanistan.
We delivered justice to bin Laden on May 2nd, — over a decade ago. Al Qaeda was decimated. I respectfully suggest you ask yourself this question: If we had been attacked on September 11, , from Yemen instead of Afghanistan, would we have ever gone to war in Afghanistan — even though the Taliban controlled Afghanistan in ?
We succeeded in what we set out to do in Afghanistan over a decade ago. Then we stayed for another decade. It was time to end this war. This is a new world. The terror threat has metastasized across the world, well beyond Afghanistan. The fundamental obligation of a President, in my opinion, is to defend and protect America — not against threats of , but against the threats of and tomorrow. That is the guiding principle behind my decisions about Afghanistan.
I simply do not believe that the safety and security of America is enhanced by continuing to deploy thousands of American troops and spending billions of dollars a year in Afghanistan. But I also know that the threat from terrorism continues in its pernicious and evil nature.
Our strategy has to change too. We will maintain the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and other countries. As Commander-in-Chief, I firmly believe the best path to guard our safety and our security lies in a tough, unforgiving, targeted, precise strategy that goes after terror where it is today, not where it was two decades ago.
And we can do both: fight terrorism and take on new threats that are here now and will continue to be here in the future. To me, there are two that are paramount. And second, we must stay clearly focused on the fundamental national security interest of the United States of America. This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan. Moving on from that mindset and those kind of large-scale troop deployments will make us stronger and more effective and safer at home.
And for anyone who gets the wrong idea, let me say it clearly. To those who wish America harm, to those that engage in terrorism against us and our allies, know this: The United States will never rest. We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down to the ends of the Earth, and we will — you will pay the ultimate price. And let me be clear: We will continue to support the Afghan people through diplomacy, international influence, and humanitarian aid.
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