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War in Afghanistan: 'People Have Lost Interest'

2 years ago

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Across Afghanistan, the enemy is expanding its operations. Fighting is intensifying, Afghans and Americans are dying – and there are signs that Washington is tiring of war.

Twenty-one U.S. military personnel were killed in Afghanistan so far this month. A new U.S. combat commander acknowledged that things are getting worse – what he called a "reversing trend'' – after Americans have been fighting and dying there for almost eight years.

But during President Obama's midday press conference this week, he never mentioned the war, and only a one reporter shouted out a question about Afghanistan after the press conference had ended. Other than that, no one inquired about the fighting, its conduct, cost, expected duration or "exit strategy.''

As for cost, the president this week signed legislation providing about $80 billion for war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The defense "supplemental'' bill buys weapons, ammo, body armor, armored vehicles and other critical supplies for young Americans in combat.

But in a lopsided vote that would have been unheard of a year ago, it barely squeaked through Congress, with 173 of 178 Republicans voting against it, along with 32 Democrats.

Granted there were other factors -- unrelated amendments were added to the bill -- but even some Capitol Hill veterans were astonished and worried.

"We have troops deployed ... people have lost interest in it,'' said Democrat Rep. John Murtha, the crusty ex-Marine from Pennsylvania.

"When I see that many people voting against [a war] supplemental, we've got problems," Murtha said this week.

With much of Congress and the public tired of Afghanistan, Murtha suggested that vocal anti-war activists would press for a U.S. withdrawal if there is no significant progress in shoring up the Afghan government and curtailing the Taliban insurgency.

"My hunch is that it's going to be a year,'' before political pressure builds on Obama to bring the troops home, Murtha said.

Some American combat commanders, meantime, say U.S. counterinsurgency strategy is working, at least in their battle zones. But, they stress, it will be a long, long war.

"We're seeing it starting to work,'' Army Col. John Spiszer, commander of the 3^rd Brigade Combat Team of the 1^st Infantry Division, told Pentagon reporters from his headquarters in northeast Afghanistan this week.

"We are toe to toe with the enemy ... there's a lot of work to be done,'' said Spiszer, who is bringing his troops home after a 12-month deployment. The 4^th Brigade Combat Team, 4^th Infantry Division, is taking their place.

As thousands of fresh U.S. troops pour into southern Afghanistan for a concerted campaign against Taliban strongholds, there was bad news from northern Afghanistan, which has been relatively peaceful and stable.

In the northern province of Kunduz this week, three German soldiers were killed in an attack on their patrol; the Taliban later claimed responsibility.

And three Afghan humanitarian aid workers were killed this week when their vehicle struck an IED in Jowzjan province, near Afghanistan's far northern border with Uzbekistan.

Incidents like these prompted U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the new top U.S. and allied commander in Afghanistan, to voice his concern about a "reversing trend in security'' in areas the military had considered a lower priority.

"Why is the insurgency showing up in these places?'' McChrystal wondered aloud as he returned from a battlefield tour with Bronwen Roberts, a reporter for Agence France-Presse.

"My picture of the security situation is that it is serious, and by serious, there are areas of the country where Taliban insurgents have been able to infiltrate village structures,'' McChrystal said.

"By doing that, they have been able to establish shadow governance, intimidation of the population ... and so they have been able to change the fabric of life,'' he told Roberts.

That kind of quiet infiltration is the "most dangerous thing'' the United States faces in Afghanistan, he said, "not the high profile attacks, not the IEDs.''

Countering that quiet infiltration and influence is the center of the new strategy put together by Gen. David Petraeus, the overall U.S. commander in the region, and endorsed by the president March 27.

Its chief focus: securing the Afghan population against insurgent violence while simultaneously pouring in development aid and civilian advisers who can help the Afghan government set up and run schools and health clinics, boost agriculture production and marketing, and recruit and train honest police, prosecutors and courts.

That effort requires an unprecedented coordination among U.S. government agencies and aid organizations – described by a senior Pentagon official as "probably one of the most complex operations our government has ever undertaken.''

"We have to get this right – lives depend on it,'' said Michele Flournoy, Defense Secretary Robert Gates' top policy aide.

Yet the "surge'' of American civilians to implement this effort lags far behind, according to aid officials and senior U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan.

For instance, the interagency task force headed by Richard Holbrooke, Obama's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is overseeing the hiring and training of at least 400 civilian experts.

But they are not expected to be at work in Afghanistan until next spring, U.S. officials said.

A congressional hearing was called last week to examine the "civilian surge'' and why it is taking so long to implement.

Pentagon and State Department officials appeared in a packed hearing room of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

But after a 15-minute wait, the hearing was postponed, indefinitely.

Congressmen were too busy to attend the hearing, it turned out.

They were voting on, among other legislation, a measure that prohibits the federal government from purchasing light bulbs without the power-saving "Energy Star'' designation by the Federal Energy Management Program.

Filed Under: Foreign Policy

Tagged: afghanistan, afghanistan war, AfghanistanWar, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Gen.StanleyMcchrystal

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