There was no aircraft carrier, no flight suit, and certainly no embarrassing banners hanging overhead, but yesterday, Bush effectively declared “mission accomplished” in Afghanistan.
President Bush on Tuesday claimed victory in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan and announced what he called five new initiatives to strengthen the links between that country and the United States.
“Coalition forces, including many brave Afghans, have brought America, Afghanistan and the world its first victory in the war on terror,” the president said. “Afghanistan is no longer a terrorist factory sending thousands of killers into the world.”
Almost immediately after Bush spoke of his success, a rocket exploded near NATO headquarters in Kabul. Fortunately, no one was killed in the attack, but the timing was almost comedic.
Declaring Afghanistan a “victory” at this point is insane, even by Bush standards. As CNN reported, thousands of U.S. troops are still engaged in “almost daily gunfights with members of al Qaeda and the ousted Taliban leadership.”
Afghanistan is not a success story. Bush spoke as if our work in the country is done and we can sleep easy knowing that a stable Afghanistan is on the road to democracy. None of this is even remotely true.
As Bob Novak reported in late May:
The handful of valiant American warriors fighting the ”other” war in Afghanistan is not a happy band of brothers. They are undermanned and feel neglected, lack confidence in their generals and are disgusted by Afghan political leadership. Most important, they are appalled by the immense but fruitless effort to find Osama bin Laden for purposes of U.S. politics.
This bleak picture goes unreported because journalists are rarely seen there. It was painted to me by hard U.S. fighters who are committed to the war against terrorism but have a heavy heart. They talked to me not to undermine policy but to reveal problems that should and can be corrected.
All available evidence tells us that Afghanistan is largely run by warlords who pay for their work through drug trafficking. The International Monetary Fund believes the country is on the brink of becoming a “narcostate” in which criminals effectively control the government.
The General Accounting Office released a report two weeks ago that explained:
Conditions in Afghanistan, such as the deteriorating security situation, the relative weakness of the central government, and the increase in opium production, complicate the longer-term reconstruction process and threaten its ultimate success.
Even Colin Powell admitted over the weekend that the Afghan government has not yet established control of the country “beyond the capital” and al Queda and Taliban “remnants” are still undermining Afghanistan’s stability.
Reuters reported just a few weeks ago that “a growing Islamic insurgency in the south and east and renegade factional militia based in the north and west are threatening security in Afghanistan.”
And Bush looks at this landscape and considers our ongoing efforts a “victory”? It’s impossible to justify because the president isn’t telling the truth.
What’s worse, the media is actively enabling such nonsense. At yesterday’s Bush-Karzai event, a reporter asked:
“Mr. President, how do you explain why the success we’ve had in Afghanistan appears to be alluding us in Iraq?”
The premise of the question is absurd. The reporter is answering one question for Bush (declaring Afghanistan a “success”), while asking another.
Bush’s answer was equally bewildering.
“This is hard work. And it wasn’t easy work in Afghanistan, by the way. I mean, it seems easy now that we’re standing here, Wendell, after several years of working together with this great leader, but it was hard work.
Notice Bush’s tenses here. Afghanistan wasn’t easy; it was hard work. The man talks like our job is done and the mission is accomplished. It’s not; Bush has to know better.