It was Worth It

Yes the Invasion was worth it

The day after the anniversary of 9/11 and in the aftermath of our withdrawal from Afghanistan all of our soldiers seem to be asking one question. Was it worth it? You can see countless interviews in tv, on the internet, and really any other medium you can find showing remorseful soldiers believing that with the US withdrawal from Afghanistan thier lives have been wasted.Today I offer up an alternative view point and say Yes it was worth it.

New Terror Attack

After listening to these brave men and women the first thing they always bring up is the safety of the homeland and the increased threat of terror leaving Afghanistan brings. I will not deny that Afghanistan is at an increased risk of being used as a base for terrorists. That much is obvious. What I do deny is that the US is any less safer since we went to Afghanistan.

Think about what actually happened in an objective way. The United States homeland was attacked in 9/11 leading to catastrophic loss of life. What did the US do in reaction? Let go of all your preconcieved notions and think about what happened in its most basic terms. First we attacked a nation that was somewhat responsible for the atrocity as the event was planned inside its borders under the protection of its rulers. We destroyed that nation , and even though it has been reclaimed, it has been left in such a state that it cannot even feed itself. What happened next? We destroyed another nation. One that had nothing to do with the attack but had always been our enemy in the region. I will not deny that we made mistakes in nation buidling but the end result is the same. Two nations were destroyed.

Suppose you are a leader in one of the Islamic nations in the area. You find out that you had Bin Laden 2.0 in your area planning 9/11 part two. Would you let him continue? Or would you be so scared that your nation would be destroyed that you would tell the Americans what they are doing? Suppose you don't and Bin Laden 2.0 had to secure materials or otherwise expose himself to other powers in the region. If you were another ruler in the region hostile to the US would you let them? Or would you offer them up to the Americans for fear of being collateral damage? Of course those skeptical among you would now ask. Why wouldnt a ruler allow an attack to be carried out and place the blame elsewhere? Even if such a thing were possible remember that Iraq was attacked while having no connection to 9/11. You still risk being destroyed as collateral damage.

With the destruction of Afghanistan and Iraq the precedent had been set. Terrorists kill citizens, Empires, real ones, kill nations. Having proved this equation it is very hard to see another attack occuring on American soil. Your actions in Iraq and Afghanistan have made the homeland safer.

Interpreters and Allies

If there is one thing that has been ingrained in American culture it is that no man should be left behind. In fact leaving behind American citizens to the tender mercies of the Taliban is one of the primary reasons the public has been so angry at the Biden administration for this withdrawal. It is understandable that our military should feel distraught at abandoning the people they know and have worked with to their fate. I realize that for the individual Afghans who have been left behind there is really nothing I can say that will make it seem like this had been worth it for them as they very likely face death at the hands of the new government.

All I can offer here is a small silver lining. A change of perspective if you will that may provide some comfort to our soldiers. First of we have to realize that since the start of the war we have only kept our promise and resettled something like 3000 Afghans in the United States. Since this horrible withdrawal began we have airlifted out one hundred thousand Afghans and last I have checked we have directly taken in 23000. Left to our own devices and timelines many of our Afghan allies may very well have died of old age before we achieved this number.

If we were to take a very narrow view of things and think of only the number of people we have saved instead of those we leave behind you could make the argument that leaving abruptly may have been the best thing to happen to our allies.

Women

Lastly we come to the Women. Some of our service members feel that thier efforts are not worth it because we have only given temporary freedom to the people of Afghanistan. In fact some would even say it is cruel to give them the expectation of this freedom only to yank it away. I argue for the opposite. The fact that we were able to give them this temporary freedom is what makes the whole exercise worth it.

Before we move forward remember that prior to the initial Afghanistan invasion less than 10% of Afghans were even aware that the attack happened. If they had access to anything connected to the outside world they would have known about it. That kind of insularity means that women not have had any concept of how to live life different from how they have been living it.

Just exposing them to the modern world would already force the Taliban to have to make concessions to them. Lets forget the women for a bit. Think of the images of the fall of Kabul. You had various militants making the rounds, taking over the palace, and posing for pictures. Did you notice they had smart phones as well? Maybe they were taking pictures to post to terrorist book. What do you think will happen if the Taliban tell all their people that they are going back to the way it was before and all smartphones would no longer work in the country. Do you think the fighters would agree? Or would they have been used to the conveniences offered by this technology and be discontent?

Look to history as well. When Rome fell the first thing that people realized was how convenient it was to have potable water delivered to their cities via aqueduct and that without the romans no one actually knew how to operate them. The various cultures may have regressed with the onset of the Dark Ages but the goal for advancement was not modelled after their own culture but that of Rome.

I am confident that the sacrifices our troops made will lead to a much better life for women in Afghanistan than if we had never invaded at all. You may not see everything you want. Women may not occupy high posts , though I suspect that is more because each warlord needs to carve out their own spoils to avoid civil war rather than a womens rights issue, but women will be in government. We will see women in schools and in the workforce as well. I think that so many people want to leave Afghanistan right now that the Taliban will allow whoever has the skills to contribute to work. More importantly women would know that they can contribute to society given the chance, something they would not have had a concept for before the invasion.

If you are a US servicemember reading this please take heart. It was worth it. You made America safer. Kept your promises to some of the brothers you fought with and left a positive mark in Afghan culture.