The difference between 2001 and 2011, is that today the idea of fighting a war is controversial

The Afghan War to Nowhere

- Daniel Greenfield
Monday, April 18, 2011

In the first years of Operation Enduring Freedom, the United States managed to oversee a campaign that broke the Taliban, drove them out of major cities and regions, including Kabul, and left them dispirited and broken. And did it while taking under 50 casualties a year. But in 2010, the United States suffered almost ten times as many casualties as it did in the toughest battles of the early days of the war.

The differences between the US involvement in Afghanistan in 2001-2003 and 2005-2011 are tremendous and profound. And they explain the ugly death toll and the nature of the unwinnable war as it’s being fought today.

In 2001-2002, we barreled into Afghanistan on a mission to break the Taliban and kill or capture as many Al Qaeda as possible. We employed maximum firepower so casually that the fleeing Taliban fighters were thoroughly demoralized. So much so that it took them years to even seriously think about confronting us again.

Let’s go back to the end of 2001 and the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi. Hundreds of Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners imprisoned in Qala-i-Jangi Fortress revolted, seized weapons from their guards and took over parts of the fortress. The United States and its allies responded with mass bombardment using gunships and guided missiles. A handful of surviving prisoners took refuge in the basement, which was flooded with water, forcing them to surrender.

Can anyone imagine something like this being done today, without everyone involved facing media smear campaigns and criminal trials? Only 3 years later, the mild mistreatment of some terrorists and insurgents imprisoned at Abu Ghraib resulted in a media feeding frenzy and criminal trials. Two years later, the Haditha Marines were virtually lynched for acting in self-defense. Today the ACLU is actually suing the US government for daring to use drone strikes against Anwar Al-Awlaki, a top Al-Qaeda terrorist recruiter who was tied to the Christmas bombing and Fort Hood Massacre, because he happens to hold US citizenship.

The difference between 2001 and 2011, is that today the idea of fighting a war is controversial.

Two of the sewer rats hiding out in the Qala-i-Jangi basement among the corpses of their own kind happened to hold American citizenship. John Walker Lindh was tried early enough that he received very little mercy from either the media or the court. And he didn’t have the Saudi government behind him. Yaser Esam Hamdi on the other hand grew up in Saudi Arabia. And like so many murderers and terrorists before him, Hamdi became a liberal cause celebre. None of them asked what role he may have had in the first US combat death, the murder of Johnny “Mikeâ€