One of the few successes of the 45th presidency was the end of the war in Afghanistan. Started by Bush Jr, this continued with Obama because nobody could see any way out. Our great commander changed that by simply surrendering to the Taliban, then declaring victory. His supporters cheered him along for this great achievement. His opponents were stunned – they hadn’t thought of this approach, but they wanted out as well. The result was a chaotic retreat from a war that should never have started in the first place.
This approach to military engagement has continued. The challenge was to stop the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The president wanted to crush them and wanted it done in 30 days. Many in the military thought this would not work, but they were sacked.
The US strategy was to fire lots of missiles at the Houthis. The Houthi strategy was to hide in underground bunkers and wait until the missiles had gone away. The Houthis had the right idea, because they were fighting an enemy who not only had a deadline, but had also broadcast their war plans to the whole world in a “secret” video conference.
The costs of this are staggering. The US burned through $1bn in this month-long campaign. Stocks of munitions are severely depleted, particularly high-precision and long-range missiles. It has achieved precisely nothing – there has been no change to Houthi operations.
The president declared “victory” of course.
Leave a Reply