We have been at war longer than Facebook has existed. We don’t know what it’s like to Tweet, twerk, floss, or use an iPhone in a time of peace.
As I scroll through my feed I see many of my military friends making comments of bewilderment and wondering what will happen next.
My generation barely knows what it’s like to not be at war around the world. But to hear the experts talk, we are risking our national security if we pull out of the conflicts we’ve embroiled ourselves in over the last two decades.
Have they forgotten how we helped to bleed the Soviet Union dry in Afghanistan? Empires don’t fall because they get beaten by some rag tag band of terrorists or fall in defeat at the hands of another super power. They fall due to imperial overreach, usually due to pointless wars in the name of national security or a “humanitarian crisis”, that lead to more insecurity and devastating human suffering. Overreach leads to bankruptcy; economical and moral.
For everything I dislike about Donald Trump (from his tariffs to his spray tan-like complexion), he sure as hell gets it when it comes to war. He has tried to get us out of Syria from the start of his presidency.
I was on the Turkish-Syrian border when he tried the first time. I will never forget receiving videos from my SDF (Syrian Democratic Army) partners of the chemical attack just days after his announcement. That attack led to our firing cruise missiles at the Assad regime. So we stayed and the military-industrial complex stayed in power.
About a year later, he tried again, and guess what, another chemical attack. It started to look like we would never leave. Why would we? That’s not the world we have grown up in. It’s a dangerous world out there and only the United States and its military power can protect us and everyone in it. So we stay. We stay in Syria. We stay in Afghanistan. We leave Iraq, but not really. We go to fight, and well, it would just be too dangerous to leave, so we stay.
Now Trump has seemingly blindsided everyone and has given them no time to react or force his hand to keep us in Syria. He’s even doubled down and said we’ll reduce troop numbers in Afghanistan. But we don’t seem to remember what our nation looks like at peace. The foreign policy experts (the same people who got us in these messes) tell us it’s dangerous to leave, that we would be risking our national security, and create power vacuums in an already destabilized region. They want us to forget that they are the ones who destabilized it. They are the ones who created the mess.
Listen, whether you’re a Trumpster or you’re With Her, whether you’re on the left or right, Green or independent, the American people have one thing in common. We don’t want war. We value peace and prosperity. So please, hate on Trump if you want for everything else (I sure will) but I implore you to give credit where it is due.
George W Bush was elected after saying he didn’t think we should get involved in nation building. Obama ran largely on a platform of getting us out of Iraq. The American people vote against war all the time. But Trump is actually the only president in my life time to not get involved in a new war (at this point). We have a president actually trying to end them. Please, show your support in ending these wars, no matter your political persuasion. Fight against him on everything else. But end these wars.
This holiday season, I’m truly am praying and hoping for peace on earth, or at least our role in it. So please, join with me and reach out to your legislators. Let them know we are sick of these wars. We may not be able to get our men and women home before Christmas, but I worry that if we don’t take action, my three month old daughter will be spending a future Christmas fighting the same wars her father fought.
Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan
Hands down the next book you should read. Scott Horton is an expert in foreign policy. He walks back our current wars from their inception, with a history that goes back 30 years and more.
