In October of 2001, Apple released the first iPod, Windows XP made its debut and N’sync
topped the Billboard Top 40 charts; however, the biggest news story of all was the NATO invasion of
Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
In a country still reeling from the terrorist plot that took down the World Trade Center, we
demanded retribution, and the violence of that day begat greater violence in a largely isolated and
chaotic country that many Americans knew very little about. It is now June of 2014. Justin Timberlake
is no longer in a boy band, and app developers dominate the software market; 13 years later, the
conflict in Afghanistan is still a pressing concern. How could we let this happen?
Recently, President Obama announced that he intended to keep a small force in Afghanistan for
at least the next couple of years. Although reducing our troop presence from 30 thousand American
soldiers to 10 thousand is a good start, it is hardly the withdrawal that is needed in order to truly keep
Americans out of harm’s way. A complete withdrawal is the only thing that can guarantee the safety of
Americans in Afghanistan.
With each passing scandal and every attack that is reported, whether at a market in Kabul or at a
checkpoint in the mountains, we must ask ourselves, what do we gain from this nasty war? Is the world
safer now that Afghanistan borders on the edge of catastrophe? Can we sleep better at night knowing
that we now face two militant Islamist movements in that region, including one in nuclear-armed
Pakistan?
America can now see that terrorism does not suffer when we fight it violently. On the contrary,
it grows and propagates. Americans observed this first hand from the civil war that erupted in Iraq in
the early 21st century. We see it in the occupied territories of Chechnya and Palestine. Without
realizing the effects of military occupation, Americans are repeating these results in Afghanistan.
Our involvement incentivizes terrorism. Though Afghanistan, under the rule of the Taliban,
may have been a conducive environment for terrorists to operate in, Afghanistan under foreign military
occupation is a petri dish for extremist views and a call to arms for those who fall into such violent
ideologies.
From the Fort Hood shooter, to the bombers of the Boston Marathon, many terrorists who lived
in the United States and had little reason to hate this nation have found plenty of reason through the
unjust occupation of Afghanistan. This encourages the Taliban to kidnap, extort, terrorize and attack
their enemies by staying in Afghanistan, which creates an environment full of grudges and the
desperation to act out against the United States through our occupation.
You cannot change what has already happened, you can only change the future. Sadly, any sort
of policy decision cannot repair 13 years of occupation in Afghanistan. The only thing we can do is end
our occupation now, before 13 years becomes 15 years.