Afghanistan Papers Reveal a Scaffold of Lies

IN 2016, CANDIDATE Donald Trump vowed to halt “endless wars.” The Democratic candidates running for president this year have made similar promises.

Yet, following the drone-strike killing of Iran’s senior military commander in early January, more troops are going to the Middle East and military tensions have increased. U.S. forces continue to drop bombs and conduct combat operations in Afghanistan and other countries, as Washington’s propensity for military intervention shows little sign of abating. The power of the Pentagon has increased and will grow further in the years ahead as the 2020 military budget doubles down on money and weapons to wage war across the globe.

When most of us hear the term endless war, we think of Afghanistan. Rightly so, as the war is now in its 19th year, with no end in sight. For years we were told by political leaders, including President Obama, that the Afghanistan conflict was a legal and justified war, as opposed to the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. Our persistent efforts, we were told, were paying off in countering terrorism and advancing democracy and human rights.

Now we know this was a lie. The release of the so-called Afghanistan Papers in December revealed systematic deception and failure. Based on 2,000 pages of confidential interviews with those who fought and directed the war, the Afghanistan Papers confirm that Pentagon and White House officials made claims of success they knew to be false and refused to admit the war was unwinnable. By most metrics, the war has been a colossal failure. Terrorist violence has increased in Afghanistan and around the world. The Taliban has steadily gained control over much of the country. The Kabul government and armed forces are inept and corrupt and lack legitimacy. Human rights abuse is rampant.

The Afghanistan Papers, like the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War 50 years earlier, document appalling levels of government deceit and political cowardice. In Afghanistan as in Vietnam, White House and Pentagon leaders knew the cause was lost but continued the killing to avoid being held responsible for defeat. Tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers died to protect the careers of politicians and military commanders who were unwilling to admit failure.

There are tragic but obvious lessons in these wars. They are the same lessons that emerge from American interventions in Iraq and Syria, the debacle of our supposed “success” in overthrowing the Gadhafi government of Libya, and the futility of continued military operations and support for proxy wars in Yemen, Somalia, and other countries.

War is not the answer to the problems of terrorism and instability that threaten parts of the world. Research shows that terrorism ends through political settlements and accountable, effective policing, not the use of military force. U.S. military intervention often makes matters worse and generates greater violence, not less.

Policymakers in the White House and Congress ignore these realities and continue to fund the U.S. war machine, allocating a staggering $738 billion for the 2020 military budget. Included in this budget are tens of billions of dollars for what military officials euphemistically term “overseas contingency” operations—military engagements in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and beyond. The budget funds the purchase of hundreds of fighter-bombers, attack aircraft, and drones, enhancing the ability of U.S. forces to continue bombing people in other countries. The budget also purchases more than a dozen new naval ships for the increasingly assertive U.S. military confrontation toward Russia and China.

The 2020 military budget maintains the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF), a sweeping measure adopted immediately after the 9/11 attacks that provides blanket authority for the use of military force anywhere in the world, supposedly to counter terrorism but often as intervention in civil conflicts between opposing local forces. The AUMF is the charter for endless war, the legal basis for military operations in Afghanistan and other countries. In July 2019, the House approved an amendment repealing this unlimited authority, as well as an amendment prohibiting military action against Iran without congressional approval. The White House opposed those measures and the Republican majority in the Senate killed them.

It’s hard to be hopeful in the face of rampant militarism and endless war, but polls show that most veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the general public, believe those wars were not worth fighting. The election campaigns this year offer an opportunity to harness that sentiment into political pressure for finally ending the forever war and further military confrontation with Iran and for reordering budget priorities away from military intervention toward building the foundations of international peace through diplomacy, development, and good governance.