How to end a war without really ending it

Consider these dates:
May 1, 2003: President George W. Bush lands on an aircraft carrier off the coast of San Diego to declare “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq.

May 1, 2004: American troops continue to fight in Iraq, as they continue to do on every May Day for the next seven years.
May 1, 2011: President Barack Obama announces that the United States has killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

May 1, 2012: Obama announces the end of combat in Afghanistan and a transition to a support role.

So, happy May Day war is over, to reconfigure a line from John Lennon. But is it?

It depends upon how you look at things. If you define the end of the war as the simple transfer of responsibility to the Afghans, the yes we are done. The troops will be coming home, but – and I think this is key – there will be “a lasting American military presence here after most troops withdraw at the end of 2014” (Huffington Post).

The outlines of this presence remain to be determined. As the Huffington Post reports,
“Many crucial details remain to be worked out, including exactly how many American troops would remain, and in what capacity, and how much the U.S. would continue to contribute to Afghanistan’s own security establishment.”
However, previous public statements have estimated a $4 billion a year cost to the U.S. and a troop presence that could hit 20,000.
So, the war ends and it continues. 

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.  
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.  
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
    Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.
    Unknown's avatar

    Author: hankkalet

    Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

    Leave a comment