Trevor Timm, Guardian - The holiday headlines blared without a hint of distrust: “End of War” and “Mission Ends” and “U.S. formally ends the war in Afghanistan”,
as the US government and Nato celebrated the alleged end of the longest
war in American history. Great news! Except, that is, when you read
past the first paragraph: “the fighting is as intense as it has ever
been since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001,” according to the Wall Street Journal. And about 10,000 troops will remain there for the foreseeable future (more than we had a year after the Afghan war started). Oh, and they’ll continue to engage in combat regularly. But other than that, yeah, the war is definitely over.
This is the new reality of war: As long as the White House doesn’t
admit the United States is at war, we’re all supposed to pretend as if
that’s true. This ruse is not just the work of the president. Members of
Congress, who return to work this week, are just as guilty as Barack Obama
in letting the public think we’re Definitely Not at War, from
Afghanistan and Somalia to the new war with Isis in Iraq and Syria and
beyond.
Thirteen years on, the near limitless war authorization Congress
passed for the Afghanistan war remains in place, with no sign that
Congress wants to even debate revoking it.
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