Here’s a little history quiz for you. Which war was the longest in American history?<\/p>\n
If you answered “Vietnam,” you’d have been right until about three weeks ago. US combat<\/span> there officially lasted eight years and eight months. But this June, it was overtaken<\/span> by Afghanistan, where fighting has gone on uninterrupted since October 2001.<\/p>\n The arrival of this fact<\/a> \u2014 much more so than the death of the 1,000th American soldier<\/a> in Afghanistan in May, which was overshadowed<\/span> by the oil spill<\/span> \u2014 has raised two big questions: The second question was answered by the general in charge of Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal<\/b>. He blamed top officials in the US government \u2014 Vice-President Joe Biden<\/b> and Special Representative Richard Holbrooke<\/b> in particular \u2014 calling them ineffective. And he did so in a most inelegant way. While being interviewed for Rolling Stone<\/i> magazine \u2014 which is often critical of the military \u2014 he and his top aides<\/span> invited the reporter along to an Irish pub, where a lot of casual<\/span> and bitter comments were made.<\/p>\n When the article<\/a> came out a few days ago, McChrystal’s boss \u2014 Barack Obama<\/b> \u2014 summoned<\/span> the general to Washington and demanded his resignation<\/span>. McChrystal was not allowed to return to Afghanistan; his belongings were packed up and shipped to him. Obama’s rationale<\/span> was that McChrystal had undermined the principle of civilian<\/span> control of the US military.<\/p>\n Obama will nonetheless<\/span> allow McChrystal to retire with his four stars (if Congress agrees), in recognition of his years of service to the country.<\/p>\n But what about the first question? The best outcome at this point seems to be a stalemate<\/span> \u2014 and that’s not even the most likely option. The other NATO<\/b> countries, which jointly<\/span> declared war, have failed to send more than a handful of extra troops. The extra American troops<\/a> sent last year are only about half of the number needed. The Taliban have gained strength, and the number of roadside bombs has doubled. The clock is also ticking: Obama had envisioned the US withdrawal<\/span> beginning a year from now \u2014 something that’s starting to be called into question.<\/p>\n When things looked this bad in Iraq in 2007, George W. Bush<\/b> decided to give things one last try. Most generals said it couldn’t be done. One agreed to take up the challenge. It was David Petraeus<\/b>.<\/p>\n Once again, Petraeus is the only general saying, in spite of inadequate resources, “Yes, we can”<\/b> \u2014 and this is why Obama has nominated him to do McChrystal’s job.<\/p>\n The Senate Armed Services Committee approved the nomination yesterday, and the full Senate will vote on it in the days ahead.<\/p>\n When America withdrew from its second-longest war, President Richard Nixon<\/b> called it “peace with honor”<\/b>. In Vietnam, America accomplished none of its objectives<\/span>. But Afghanistan is another story.<\/p>\n The war’s actual<\/span> objective \u2014 as stated in the authorization<\/a> given by Congress \u2014 was not to dismantle<\/span> the Taliban. It was to use military force against those responsible for 9\/11. Osama bin Laden<\/b>, if he’s even still alive, has probably been in Pakistan since before the first NATO air strike<\/span>. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed<\/b>, the guy who planned 9\/11, was caught by Pakistan’s intelligence service<\/span> in 2003. And Al Qaeda has moved on to other battlefields<\/a>, where the US is successfully containing<\/span> it.<\/p>\n Bringing civilization to Afghanistan may be too big a task, even for Petraeus. The original objective was achieved (by Pakistan, with US help) long ago. When America recognizes this, we will probably find “peace with honor” \u2014 Taliban or no Taliban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here’s a little history quiz for you. Which war was the longest in American history? If you answered “Vietnam,” you’d have been right until about three weeks ago. US combat there officially lasted eight years and eight months. But this June, it was overtaken by Afghanistan, where fighting has gone on uninterrupted since October 2001. The arrival of this fact … >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[67,27,91,68,175,29,35,62],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1733,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions\/1733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n1. Is the war winnable?<\/b> and
\n2. If it’s not winnable, whose fault is that?<\/b><\/p>\nA one-way ticket home<\/h2>\n
“Yes, we can!”<\/h2>\n
Peace with honor?<\/h2>\n