The many costs and tragedy of the war in Afghanistan

Peter Preston questions why soldiers stationed in Afghanistan are dying needlessly, as the US and allied commanders and political leaders try desperately to find a rationale for pulling troops out of the country. The article is printed below, after some of my own fact-gathering observations and quotes from a new book by Chris Hedges.

The Afghanistan war has taken its toll on US and allied troops. The most recent troop fatality figures that I could find were at the website http://icasualties.org/. From 2001 up through 2010 [not clear whether this includes July and after], there were a total of 2,147 fatalities among US and allied troops, 1,323 were US troops, 340 were UK troops, and 484 were "other." With respect to the wounded, Cause USA estimates that through July 31, 2010, there were 7,285 US troops wounded. Many of these troops will require medical and psychological assistance for years and in some cases for the rest of their lives. In addition, there are often extraordinary financial and psychological demands on the families of these troops.

Afghan civilian deaths were in the tens of thousands. You can find some estimates at Wikipedi, Civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

In his cogent new book, Death of the Liberal Class, Chris Hedges summarizes some of the financial costs of the war/occupation for US taxpayers and the misconceived foreign policies. He writes:

"Congress has approved $345 billion for the war in Afghanistan, which includes more than $40 billion for training and equipping the army and police, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan and Reconstruction. The United States spends an estimated $500,000 to $1 million per soldier or marine per year in Afghanistan, depending on whether expenditures on housing and equipment are included along with pay, food, and fuel. These funds do not include medical costs and veterans' compensation. Foreign aid to Afghanistan, including food and development assistance, has totaled $17 billion since 2002, according to the State Department and Congressional Research Service documents.

"But it is not the financial cost of the war that makes the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan so tragic, wasteful, and immoral. War as an instrument of change is brutal, savage, impersonal and counterproductive. It mocks the fantasy of individual heroism and the absurdity of utopian goals, such as the imposition of Western-style democracy or the liberation of women. In an instant, industrial warfare can kill dozens, even hundreds of people, who never see their attackers. The power of industrial weapons is indiscriminate and staggering....The wounds for those who survive, result in terrible burns, blindness, amputation, and lifelong pain and trauma. No one returns the same from such warfare. And once these weapons are employed, all talk of human rights is a farce."

We are in the grip of a powerful military establishment in the US. It gets significant help from elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans, in the White House and Congress and from state governments. There is indeed a military-industrial complex, more so than ever before. The US is following a foreign policy that is based on military force and priorities. This is not all. There are geopolitical reasons for what we have been doing in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries, where the US has about 1,000 military bases. Our leaders are motivated by the aspiration of being a hegemon in the world and by the growing need to ensure America's corporations have privileged access to or control of increasingly scarce resources (e.g., oil and other minerals). The leaders give us the hogwash about wanting to create "democratic" regimes. See Hedges book to disabuse you of this nonsense. Also check out William Pfaff's just published book, The Irony of Manifest destiny: The Tragedy of America's Foreign Policy. We need what seems impossible now, that is, a transformation of our society's priorities from war- and profit-oriented to a democratic socialist agenda that includes environmental preservation and regeneration.

Peter Preston's article:

Despicable Afghanistan endgame: Obama and Cameron knowingly ask soldiers to die in vain

The politicians are just waiting for a politically acceptable moment to proclaim a phoney triumph and leave the Afghans to their own devices. It is dismaying when soldiers die needlessly, says former Guardian editor Peter Preston. It is despicable when they are knowingly asked to die in vain.

By Peter PrestonThe Guardian11 October 2010
Downloaded from: http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/2015/1/


You don't cry during TV news bulletins. But there I sat, a few nights ago, watery-eyed as a hero died again. Lieutenant Mark Evison of the Welsh Guards was back from the dead, gripping the imagination. His mother had wanted Channel 4 News to show the video of her son's last few hours on earth.

Evison, just 26, was leading his platoon on patrol in Helmand 18 months ago when the Taliban attacked. He couldn't get a radio connection to call for help, so he broke cover to try again. A bullet took him in the shoulder, rupturing an artery. His men carried Evison back inside their compound and called for an emergency helicopter. If he could get to a base hospital 20km away, perhaps the surgeons could save him. But the helicopter took 94 minutes to arrive. He bled to death.

Evison's mother wanted the film shown because she still sought answers to two questions. Were the radio signals really so frail that her son had had to put himself in harm's way to get a message through – and could a faster medical response have saved him? The answers on offer (via an inquest and a ritual Ministry of Defence statement) set your teeth on edge. An "extensive log" of the patrol's radio connections was produced, so the radios were working. (In which case, why did Evison make himself a target?) And no helicopter arriving even in seconds could have helped him: his wound was "unsurvivable".

Of course you can grow angry over duff equipment, duff support, duff military bureaucracy. But the filming of Evison's dying moments went beyond questions of kit and response time. This, in a way that Hollywood never contrives, was war: real chaos, real gallantry, real death.
Killing fields

I remember in northern Cyprus, once the shooting had subsided, looking down into a foxhole in a Turkish Cypriot garden, and seeing three young Turks lying at the bottom, shot to pieces. I remember travelling the Jammu sector as India and Pakistan fought yet again and seeing the bloated bodies of cows and bullocks alongside the bodies of dead infantry littering the killing fields of retreat. I remember our jeeps strafed by jets. I remember the chaos for myself.

Evison, by these lights, was just one more victim among millions stretching through history. Cue "war" as the darkest destroyer haunting mankind. But the grief, tinged with anger now, went beyond general revulsion over such folly. In death, as in life, stuff happens, which means that sometimes war can't be avoided, sometimes you have to fight.

In Afghanistan, though? In this particular war, with this particular rationale? It doesn't need a murdered aid worker and a botched rescue mission to show you that the reasons for carrying on grow more derisory day by day. Last week the Obama administration sent a report to Congress so feeble it barely crawled up the steps of Capitol Hill. The White House is scrabbling round looking for the nearest exit. Some leftover hawks, watching fuel convoys explode and supply lines blocked, natter about invading Pakistan. The insanity of the endgame.

No, the only "debate" here merely trades dates for Nato departure. Some, like the Dutch, have gone already. The Americans want to start going home next year. David Cameron is as eager as anyone to draw the last line under this misbegotten, failed foray. The last post cannot sound too soon. And that is the real reason to weep as Mark Evison's final moments flash across our screens.

So much bravery, loyalty, devotion; so many young lives snuffed out. But back in London or Brussels or Washington, other young men in expensive suits – who have never pulled on a uniform – are toiling over the politically acceptable moment to proclaim phoney triumph and leave the Afghans to their own devices. It is dismaying when soldiers die needlessly. It is despicable when they are knowingly asked to die in vain.