Which American Soldier Will be Asked to Take the Last Bullet in Afghanistan?

President Obama meets with Afghan President Hamid
Karzai earlier this month, when Mr. Obama visited
U.S. Troops at Bagram Airfield.
(TV Screenshot, Dick Bergeron)

The answer is coming more clearly into focus:  Not one more. 

The Afghan war represents a conflict that was begun with justification.  But it has morphed into a struggle that is being prosecuted under a strategy that our leaders in Washington can no longer adequately explain.  Furthermore, it is being conducted under restrictive rules of engagement which unnecessarily place American lives in danger.

When American troops invaded Afghanistan in 2001, most of us supported the initial objective.  It was clear at the time:  Capture or terminate Osama bin Ladin and permanently neuter the threat of the Taliban. 

Thanks to the protective umbrella cast over bin Ladin by Afghan’s neighbor and our other untrustworthy ally Pakistan, it took over 10 years to accomplish the first objective.  Achievement of the second is nowhere in sight.


On Sunday, President Barack Obama met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Chicago, making a glowing statement that “The Afghan War as we understand it is over.” The end will come, Obama insists, after our combat role is finished in 2014. 

Our President’s expectations, among others, is that Karzai needs to cut a deal with the Taliban that will eventually bring a cessation to hostilities.  Mr. Obama also anticipates that, before the end of 2014, the American military will have succeeded in training an Afghan National Security Force (ANSF) that will ensure peace.  Then, he believes, we can bring the troops home. 

It is a wishful fabrication that is doomed to fail.  Even now, American soldiers are being turned upon and murdered not by the Taliban, but by the very Afghan trainees that are being groomed to be a part of Afghanistan’s own army (ANSF). 

Afghanistan, a fiercely tribal nation with an illiteracy rate of about 70%, has watched armies come and go for centuries. Furthermore, thanks to the current administration in Washington, the Taliban is now in possession of the withdrawal schedule for U.S. troops.

Karzai is an unreliable ally.  In a Time magazine blog, writer Tony Karon states that “The only thing keeping him in power over the past decade has been the presence of tens of thousands of Western troops.”

In his post, Karon quotes U.S. General John Allen, NATO commander in Afghanistan:  “I don’t want to, again, understate the challenge that we have ahead of us.  There’s no end of combat before the end of 2014. And, in fact, the Taliban will oppose the ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) after 2014.”

Once more, I repeat the question:  Which American Soldier Will be Asked to Take the Last Bullet in Afghanistan?

And, I offer a final question:  For whom and for what reason?