It was an extremely difficult decision. But President Trump has elected to send 4,000 additional troops to Afghanistan — not to engage in the process of helping to sustain the government of that country, but to engage and fight our sworn enemy — the Taliban, which ruled that nation when we invaded it in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.
In the intervening years, the Taliban has been on the run from the U.S. as the number of American troops in Afghanistan grew from 1,300 in 2001 to over 100,000 in 2010. But our success on the battlefield in that war-torn country has been especially mixed, with more than 2,300 U.S. troops killed in action and an additional 20,000 wounded.
Between Iraq and Afghanistan, there are an astonishing 970,000 veterans’ disability claims with the Veteran’s Administration. That’s to say nothing of private military contractors, humanitarian aides and journalists, among whom casualties in Afghanistan number more than 3,900 killed. And when you factor in the number of Afghan civilians and fighters killed in terrorist incidents or in the heat of partisan skirmishes, the total number of casualties in the Afghan War since 2001 is more than 100,000.
Critics say that President Trump is trying to find a path to victory in an unwinnable war. But Trump is correct in saying that in order to rout the Taliban, we must deny them safe haven over the border in nearby Pakistan, which is ostensibly our ally (to whom we’ve given billions in foreign aid), but which has allied with the Taliban in myriad ways since the latter group ruled the Afghan state 16 years ago.
Watch as President Trump attempts to clarify in this clip the American mission in Afghanistan and what its goals are.
