Barbara Howard: With President Trump announcing that the United States will remain in Afghanistan, many Americans are wondering about the wisdom of the decision to increase troop levels, and what is at nearly 16 years and running, the United States' longest running war. With us on the line to talk about the conflict in Afghanistan is Andrew Bacevich. He is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army and a professor emeritus of international relations and history at Boston University. Thanks for being on the line with us, Professor Bacevich.
Andrew Bacevich: Glad to be with you.
Barbara Howard: The war in Afghanistan's been going on, as we just mentioned, about 16 years. What is the United States fighting for at this point?
Andrew Bacevich: My guess is that the Trump administration is fighting not to fail, that the decision that the president announced last night to prolong the war stemmed from a realization that things are falling apart in Afghanistan. And I think from a political point of view, the president and his advisers are unable or unwilling, I should say, to accept responsibility for that failure.
Barbara Howard: Earlier, Trump had criticized the U.S. presence in Afghanistan during his presidential campaign. So why, now, do you think he's changing his tune?
Andrew Bacevich: I think to understand the reversal, we need to begin by appreciating that the president is a person who is utterly devoid of principle. So when he was running for the presidency, right — he denounced the Afghanistan war. It was stupid. It was a waste. Elect me president, I’ll get us out. He's now changed his tune, but there are no fixed principles that provide the basis for Trump's policies.
Barbara Howard: President Trump says, though ,that the U.S. will no longer be pursuing what he terms ‘nation building’ in Afghanistan, but will focus instead on fighting the terrorist threat coming out of that country. But what could that look like?
Andrew Bacevich: Well I think it's going to look pretty much what it has looked like since the Obama administration. That is to say the purpose of U.S. forces in Afghanistan really is two-fold. On the one hand, we have the so-called counterterrorism element that are trying to kill members of the Taliban or members of ISIS, and we have a larger number of U.S. troops that are engaged in advising and training the Afghan forces that they'll be able to manage things on their own. There's nothing that the president said last night that indicates we're going to do anything differently, albeit we may do it with an additional increment of U.S. forces.
Barbara Howard: You've been a prominent critic of U.S. policy in Afghanistan. What do you think President Trump ought to be doing?
Andrew Bacevich: I think that the core question really is not with regard to Afghanistan, but is with regard to the larger threat, so-called. In the immediate wake of 9/11, long ago now, President George W. Bush declared a global war on terrorism. The concerted use of American military power was going to eliminate this threat. So we've been at it, we've been fighting this war for 15 plus years now. And the fact of the matter is, our military efforts have exacerbated things. We've made things worse.
So the place to begin, I think, is to ask the question: Does waging war on terrorism make sense? I think the answer is no, and therefore we need to revise our policy, de-emphasizing the role of the military, and find more effective ways of protecting the country. And I think the bottom line there is that we should treat terrorism as a form of international criminality to be dealt with primarily through police methods, not through the use of military forces, in particular, not through the use of military forces that are occupying countries in the Islamic world as U.S. forces have been doing in Afghanistan for a decade and a half.
The issues here are primarily political, not military. The George W. Bush administration insisted that the problem was a military problem. This is the third administration in a row that has clung to that defective conviction. Now, President Trump has surrounded himself with senior military officers. My sense is that the military itself is very reluctant to acknowledge that their efforts over the past decade and a half have failed and indeed have been counterproductive.
Barbara Howard: Do you see the U.S. exiting Afghanistan while President Trump is in office?
Andrew Bacevich: No. No, we've got a president who is incapable of admitting error. I think it's almost inconceivable that he'll make a similar presentation to the one he did last night, go on TV, and say ‘Oh by the way, I made a mistake. I'm changing my mind with regard to Afghanistan.’ So he has made this war his and I think he's going to be stuck with it for the duration of his presidency.
Barbara Howard: OK, thank you so much, Professor Bacevich.
Andrew Bacevich: Thank you.
Barbara Howard: That's Andrew Bacevich. He is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army and professor emeritus of international relations and history at Boston University.
