“Major combat operations” may have ended in Iraq in May, but U.S. forces continue to face hostilities there every day. As you may have seen and read elsewhere, three more of our troops have died under hostile fire in Iraq in the last 24 hours, bringing the total of American service members killed in Iraq since the war started on March 20 to 314. An additional 1,700 soldiers have been injured.
However, as we keep our attention on the ongoing military challenges in Iraq, we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that our troops are also still fighting in Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, for example, three U.S. soldiers were attacked in southeastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border. One of the three was killed, the other two injured. As the New York Times reported, “The Taliban and anti-American forces have grown more bold in their attacks in recent months, often deploying groups of dozens of fighters at a time. Five American servicemen have died and five have been wounded in the past two months.”
Perhaps because of the attention focused on Iraq, Tuesday’s incident went largely unmentioned by many news outlets.
With all the rhetoric from the administration about Iraq’s role in the U.S. “war on terror,” it’s easy for some to overlook the fact that the nation directly responsible for facilitating the terrorist attacks on 9/11 — Afghanistan — is quickly sliding backwards. Things are not getting better there; they’re getting worse.
With this point in mind, I saw two important essays published in the last couple of days that I wanted to bring to your attention.
First, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) reminded everyone not to “forget Afghanistan” in an excellent New York Times op-ed yesterday.
“Today, huge portions of Afghanistan outside Kabul have been ceded to warlords,” Biden said. “Since March, the Taliban have embarked on a campaign of murder and intimidation, targeting humanitarian workers in an attempt to set back reconstruction efforts and to discredit both the government of President Hamid Karzai and the United States-led coalition that supports him.”
Biden also noted that Bush has allocated only $1.2 billion for Afghanistan out of the newly-unveiled $87 billion proposal before Congress — and one-third of the $1.2 billion is “recycled” from existing accounts.
“Inadequate funding is just one way the president has failed to make good on his pledge of a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan,” Biden said. “He has also failed to provide the leadership necessary to encourage the rest of the world to join in the rebuilding effort.
“The best way to bring stability to Afghanistan is finally to expand the United Nations-mandated International Security Assistance Force. The force is now permitted to operate only in the capital; because of its presence there, Kabul is one of the few secure sites in Afghanistan. While President Karzai and Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, have called for an expansion of the force, the Bush administration has been slow to endorse such a move, citing the reluctance of other countries to supply troops. NATO allies must wonder why we can’t take ‘yes’ for an answer.”
In addition, I wanted to also highlight a column by Joe Strupp with Editor and Publisher, who laments the fact that the media has largely overlooked Afghanistan in recent months.
“As violence in Afghanistan intensifies, along with plans for expanded U.S. funding and possible military efforts, American newspapers are keeping their staffing in the war-torn country to a minimum, blaming budget cutbacks, a perceived lack of reader interest, and the need for resources in Iraq and other international hot spots,” Strupp said.
He added, “Although there are fewer than 10,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, compared to more than 120,000 in Iraq, signs that the Taliban is back, while the Bush Administration pushes for expanded international peacekeeping forces, would indicate a need for more news coverage. Editors at several major newspapers either don’t agree or say that they can’t spare the journalists from other overseas assignments.”
Naturally, with fewer reporters covering Afghanistan, fewer Americans can appreciate the progress (or lack thereof) of our efforts there.
I fear that within a year, the Taliban will grow stronger, begin re-seizing control of much of the country, and many Americans — who thought Afghanistan was “done” when we moved on to Iraq — will wonder what went wrong.