In Afghanistan, Trump Is Poised to Re-Escalate a Hopeless War
Barely anyone in the United States is paying attention.
U.S. soldiers near Forward Operating Base Fenty in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan on December 19, 2014
PETER BEINART
4:50 AM ET
Republicans are supposedly becoming more nationalistic, less willing to bear the burdens of global empire. Democrats are supposedly moving left, abandoning the “indispensable nation” hawkishness favored by the Clintons. American politics, we are told, is turning into a battle between Breitbart and Bernie Sanders.
So how come America is reportedly considering escalating its war in Afghanistan? Donald Trump, who as a candidate pledged that “If I become president, the era of nation-building will be ended,” may in the coming days decide to send several thousand more troops to take part in a war that has been going on since some of them were toddlers. Democrats, who denounce Trump multiple times before breakfast, will mostly look the other way. And the longest war in American history will grind on, despite the fact that almost no one believes America can win.
How is this possible? Because except for the families whose sons and daughters come back maimed, traumatized, or dead, barely anyone in the United States is paying attention.
It is hard to exaggerate how politically irrelevant the Afghan war has become. Donald Trump did not mention it in his convention acceptance speech. He did not mention it during his three debates with Hillary Clinton. He did not mention it in his big foreign-policy speech last August in Youngstown, Ohio. He did not mention it in his inaugural address. He did not mention it in his speech to a joint session of Congress. And it’s not just Trump. Twenty-seven senators sit on the Armed Services Committee. Together, they barely mentioned Afghanistan while grilling General James Mattis during his hearings to become secretary of defense. Pollingreport.com, which aggregates surveys from different pollsters, does not record a single one about Afghanistan since 2015.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/05/trump-afghanistan-surge/526161/
