Win Without War: More US Troops to Afghanistan is Not a Strategy for Peace
Last Updated on August 22, 2017.
Win Without War Director, Stephen Miles, released the following statement in response to President Donald Trump’s announcement that he will expand America’s 16-year war in Afghanistan.
President Trump should have listened to candidate Trump. It is long past time to have ended America’s longest war.
There is simply no reason to believe that a few thousand more American troops will somehow accomplish what has eluded us for 16 years in Afghanistan. The truth remains that there is no military solution to the challenges in Afghanistan. By continuing down the same failed ‘military-first’ policy that his two predecessors pursued, Donald Trump is risking more American and Afghan lives, wasting more taxpayer dollars, and making a sustainable and lasting peace even harder to achieve.
In truth, the war in Afghanistan goes back decades, long before American and NATO soldiers arrived. A lasting solution to nearly four decades of conflict will take a robust peace process led by the Afghan people, including their neighbors, and supported by robust American diplomacy. What has already proven to be ineffective is more American troops and bombs.
Congress, too, has a vital role to play on this decision. It must step up and reassert its constitutional war-making authority. It has been 16 years since Congress passed an Authorization for Use of Military Force for America’s engagement in Afghanistan. It is time for Congress to repeal that blank-check war authorization and debate a long-term strategy for sustainable, lasting peace.
If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, then there is no better word to describe the President’s announcement this evening.