Boots on the Ground is a Mis-Step

And a mistake.

By: Richard Trotsky

Lately there has been talk about whether or not to send military forces into Syria to assist in combating ISIS. Is it me, or does anyone else get a feeling of déjà vu? It wasn’t all that long ago that combat troops were on the ground inside Iraq and Afghanistan in an effort to combat terrorist activities there. Anyone who followed the initial deployment of troops knows just how much of a farce the rationale for deploying them in Iraq was, there wasn’t even a single irrefutable piece of evidence to indicate that Al Qaeda was operating inside Iraq.

But let’s take a step backward in time, to the initial origin of the Taliban, whom the Bush administration was demanding hand over Osama Bin Laden, hence the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom. It began in Afghanistan in 1978, when after a coup the pro-Soviet Nur Mohammad Taraki government came to power and attempted to undertake radical modernization reforms which was met with hostility from traditional Afghans. This amounted to large sections of the country being in open rebellion by April 1979 which prompted the Nur Mohammad Taraki government to request aid from the Soviet government, this led to the deployment of the Soviet 40^th Army. The Islamic Council adopted a resolution demanding the immediate withdraw of Soviet forces and the UN General Assembly passed a resolution protesting Soviet intervention. Following this the Afghan mujahideen began to receive enormous amounts of aid and training in neighboring Pakistan and China, paid for by primarily the US and Gulf State Monarchies. Now here is where it gets really interesting, fast forward about 5 years, and lo and behold the very mujahideen that were located in Pakistan had evolved into an organization called, you guessed it, the Taliban.

Now, fast forward another 20 years, and troops are in Afghanistan, fighting against the very Taliban that was essentially created by the funding of the mujahideen those 20 years ago. I’m not saying in any way that the indigenous population of a country should not be able to speak for, or defend itself, in fact I actually believe that indigenous populations have the right to have their wishes observed, and respected. I’m merely saying that our government doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to involvement in issues within the Middle East. There are far too many variables in this region for any government to simply walk in and assume that they can solve all the issues present there. That, my friends, is the main reason the international citizenry views the United States as unfavorable. It’s not us, the people that are viewed as unfavorable, but simply the fact that our government feels it has to police the entire world. This is what generates hostility and resentment towards us. The international citizenry see the principles of the foundation of this country as very favorable, but by our government assuming it knows how to best instill those principles in other nations regardless of their wishes is the main point of contention. Unless this changes there will always be a negative perception associated with the United States.

It would be a serious tactical error for the United States to become directly involved in this conflict. I actually read an article a few days ago that stated an Air Force C-17 cargo jet just airdropped ammunition to rebel groups that were engaged in fighting with ISIS, but the only problem is that they have yet to confirm who actually received the ordinance. Nice work there.

This issue is already costing us significant amounts, in 2014 a program was created to train Syrian rebels in the fight against ISIS that cost $500 million, and was touted that by this time they would have roughly 4000-5000 rebels trained. Well that program worked so well they have trained a whopping 4 or 5 rebels. This country simply cannot afford to be involved in another conflict like Iraq that cost to this point more than $2 trillion. Yes trillion, $1.7 trillion in direct cost and $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans. This figure could actually grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades when interest is taken into account.

These levels of expenditures simply aren’t sustainable, and an incursion into yet another potentially disastrous situation will have serious detrimental effects further on down the road. It’s time we stopped trying to police the world, and turning a blind eye to the glaring issues we face right here in our own country. I’m not saying become isolationist because that’s simply not a feasible option, but for our future generations sake we must turn away from the foreign policies that have steered us to the point we are at now. We’re doing nothing but leaving mountains of debt for our children and our grandchildren to contend with, is that what we really want for them?