The ‘Forever War’ in Afghanistan

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/opinion/letters/afghanistan-united-states-war.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Two Veterans Groups Find Common Ground in Opposing Forever Wars” (news article, March 17):

It is heartening that in an age of intense partisanship in Washington, two veterans groups from opposite ends of the political spectrum are working together on the noble objective of ending America’s endless war in Afghanistan.

The American people have long become disillusioned with the ineffective strategies that drove our participation in the Afghan conflict and guided all of our efforts in that country. There is an emerging consensus that American foreign policy must undergo a strategic rethinking, so that the United States military is used more judiciously and the full weight of America’s national power is leveraged to resolve critical national security issues.

That the war in Afghanistan has gone on for more than 17 years is a sad indictment of the current approach. Our national security leaders must understand that the United States military is not the option of first resort, nor should it be expected to come to the rescue whenever a problem in the world occurs.

The United States must re-emphasize the power of nonmilitary tools in its arsenal and decouple military force from foreign policy. The sooner this rebalance takes place, the sooner our country can avoid more forever wars in the future.

Michael E. SmithAnnandale, Va.The writer, a retired rear admiral, is president of the American College of National Security Leaders.