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Fool’s
Errand: NATO Pledges Four More Years of War in
Afghanistan
By Ron Paul
July 11, 2016
"Information
Clearing House"
- The longest war in US history just got even
longer. As NATO wrapped up its 2016 Warsaw Summit,
the organization agreed to continue funding Afghan
security forces through the year 2020. Of course
with all that funding comes US and NATO troops, and
thousands of contractors, trainers, and more.
President Obama said last week that the US must keep
3,000 more troops than planned in Afghanistan. The
real reason is obvious: the mission has failed and
Washington cannot bear to admit it. But Obama didn’t
put it that way. He said:
“It is in our national security interest, especially
after all the blood and treasure we’ve invested over
the years, that we give our partners in Afghanistan
the best chance to succeed.”
This is how irrational Washington’s logic is. Where
else but in government would you see it argued that
you cannot stop spending on a project because you
have already spent so much to no avail? In the real
world, people who invest their own hard-earned money
in a failed scheme do something called “cut your
losses.” Government never does that.
Isn’t 15 years of US “blood and treasure” enough of
a “best chance” to succeed?
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced at
the summit that thanks to an additional billion
dollars in NATO member-country donations, the
organization had come up with close to the $5
billion per year that it has pledged to the Afghan
government. Of that $5 billion you can guess who is
paying the lion’s share. That’s right, we are. We
send $3.45 billion every year to, according to
Transparency International, the third most corrupt
country on earth -- while Americans struggle with
unemployment, stagnant wages, and inflation. That is
why I always say that foreign aid is money stolen
from poor people in the United States and sent to
rich people overseas.
NATO head Stoltenberg said, “Our message is clear:
Afghanistan doesn't stand alone. We're committed for
the long haul.” How nice of the Norwegian politician
to commit Americans to financing the war in
Afghanistan for “the long haul.”
When I suggested in a recent interview that the only
sensible US policy in Afghanistan would be to bring
all the troops home, the host asked whether I was
worried the Taliban would rush in to fill the
vacuum. That’s what has already happened, I said.
The Taliban are stronger than ever in Afghanistan.
They control more territory than at any time since
the original US invasion in 2001. Despite 15 years
of US interventionism, nearly 2,500 dead US
soldiers, and well over a trillion dollars,
Afghanistan is no closer to being a model democracy
than it was before 9/11. It’s a failed policy. It’s
a purposeless war. It is a failed program.
The neocons argue that Iraq, Libya, and other US
interventions fell apart because the US did not stay
long enough. As usual they are wrong. They failed
and they will continue to fail because they cannot
succeed. You cannot invade a country, overthrow its
government, and build a new country from the ground
up. It is a fool’s errand and Washington has turned
most Americans into fools. It’s time to end this
game and get back to the wise foreign policy of the
founders: non-intervention in the affairs of others.
Copyright
© 2016 by RonPaul Institute.
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