16 Years On: End Goal of Afghanistan is ‘Admit No Failure’

21st Century Wire says…

Today, 7 October 2017, marks the 16th anniversary of United States and British military action in Afghanistan – aka “Operation Enduring Freedom” – and all signs point to a policy of not admitting failure.

The war operation in Afghanistan has indeed been enduring. It has taken countless lives, and for what benefit to the Afghan people? What is the end goal?

From Bush to Obama to Trump, and even further back than that, there are few signs of any end to this perpetual war – now known in the mainstream as “America’s Longest War” – a war that 21WIRE contributor Andre Vltchek called “one of the most destructive and brutal occupations in NATO’s history.”

More from RT and Ruptly TV…

RT

US bureaucracies that set foreign and national security policy on issues such as Afghanistan are not interested in learning the lessons of the past, as then they would be out of jobs, investigative journalist and historian Gareth Porter told RT.

Saturday marks 16 years since the US invasion of Afghanistan after the then-President George W. Bush accused the Afghan government of sheltering the Al-Qaeda leaders who masterminded the 9/11 attacks.

Ahead of the anniversary, hundreds of people have been protesting in the Afghan capital, Kabul against the continued presence of US troops in the country, while the UN released new figures showing an increase in casualties from the previous year.

RT asked investigative journalist Gareth Porter to comment on the future of the American campaign in Afghanistan and what its final goal might be.

RT: How different is the situation with the US military in Afghanistan we have right now from the huge troop surge that Obama carried out in Afghanistan a few years ago? Seems like the US is not learning from its mistakes.

Gareth Porter: Clearly, they are not learning anything from the past, but I would argue that the system that we are using to make foreign policy and national security policy is not geared to learning from the past, because it is really not in the interest of those institutions, those bureaucracies to learn the lessons of the past, because if they did, they would essentially be out of a job. We would regard the kinds of policies that they are being asked to carry out as ridiculous and not helpful to the US and its interests.

But the big difference here is clearly that the US is trying to do the job that it was doing during the earlier period of the Obama administration with far fewer troops. As everyone knows, the US was unable to achieve the goal that it has set for itself – which was basically, put the Taliban movement on the defensive and prevent them from being able to continue their advance. Instead, the Taliban showed that they could continue their advance despite the fact that the US carried out a troop surge in Afghanistan.

Now we’re seeing the US apparently trying to do something along the same lines with far fewer troops. Obviously on the face of it, it is an absurd idea. One cannot fathom how they could imagine that they could be successful in this… I don’t believe they think they can be successful in doing what they are doing.

RT: What is the end goal in Afghanistan?

GP: The only end goal that one can objectively discern here is for the US military to not have to admit that they failed in Afghanistan. That means having to go on indefinitely with the military presence that we now have or roughly along those lines. That is the reason that we’ve heard one figure in the military say that the US is going to have to remain in Afghanistan for another decade. That is the minimum that one can say about the prospects for this policy.

Continue this interview at RT…

READ MORE AFGHANISTAN NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Afghanistan Files

SUPPORT 21WIRE AND ITS WORK BY SUBSCRIBING AND BECOMING A MEMBER @  21WIRE.TV

21st Century Wire is an alternative news agency designed to enlighten, inform and educate readers about world events which are not always covered in the mainstream media.