"We may be witnessing the end of the era of the U.S. military
interventions around the globe. The lessons of Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan
were not only very costly for the United States, traumatic as well. … The
Americans are tired and would like to renounce the role of the eternal global
policeman. But who'll take over?"
The longest war in modern
American history is coming to an end. Barack Obama has announced the withdrawal
of 33,000 troops from Afghanistan between now and next summer.
The U.S. president is
convinced that the Afghans themselves will soon be able to take care of their
own security, the warring factions and tribes will reach a political compromise,
and it will be possible to include the Taliban in peace talks. It may be - in
the words of one of Obama’s advisers - that, “Afghanistan will not immediately transform
into an ideal democracy, but at least it will be able to stand on its feet.”
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
The president is risking a
lot, since the “Afghanization" of the conflict may end the same as the “Vietnamization”
of the war in Vietnam. Forty years ago, this was Richard Nixon's way of lightening
the load of the American military. Obama, however, is reading the opinion polls:
according to one, 56 percent of Americans - the most since the war began - favor
a speedy withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. A majority also think that,
after the killing of Osama bin Laden, America has nothing more to do there. For
a president fighting for reelection, the images of smiling soldiers returning
from the Hindu Kush into the arms of eagerly-awaiting wives and worried mothers
may be an important element of the campaign.
Obama also knows that his
country is no longer capable of bearing the financial burden of the war. It
costs the taxpayers $10 billion a month to continue waging it. How to explain
to voters the need for such spending, when there is no end in sight to the recession?
But what are at play here aren't
just political calculations on the part of Obama. We may be witnessing the end
of the era of the U.S. military interventions around the globe. The lessons of
Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan were not only very costly for the United States, traumatic
as well.
Since 1945, the only war the
U.S. has unequivocally won was … the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The
Americans are tired and would like to renounce the role of the eternal global
policeman.
