Wars-of-choice: The reasons, cost and ambiguous aftermath of wars unfinished, unwon
Question: Has America ever won a war? Since 1945, when the US and its allies vanquished Axis powers at the end of World War II, America has very rarely achieved meaningful victory in an armed conflict.
The US has fought five major wars — Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan. Only the Gulf War in 1991 can really be labelled as a clear triumph.
The circumstances surrounding US withdrawals from Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan vary considerably, as do the timetables for each. Given the unsatisfying conclusions, spilling all the blood and treasure in US military involvements in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan has been subject of closer scrutiny.
Here’s an n overview of the 3 of the most recent, and costliest wars the US found itself in:
Period when the US military was involved:
What triggered the US involvement:
The Vietnam war has been, and always be, one of the most important events since World War II. Most historians say the Vietnam War started in the 1960s. However, the conflict in Southeast Asia had its roots in the French colonisation, when Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh forces defeated the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, on May 7, 1954, effectively ending the 7-1/2-year Indochina War.
Two months later, in July 1954, world powers agreed to a divided Vietnam a conference in Geneva. Communists, led by Ho Chi Minh, controlled the North. The US supported an anticommunist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem in the South.
Cost of war:
US lives lost:
(Source: Johns Hopkins University)
Local lives lost:
Circumstances leading to or surrounding withdrawal:
On November 5, 1968, Richard Nixon was elected president, promising to end the war in Vietnam. But on April 30, 2021, Nixon announced the expansion of the war into Cambodia. On May 4, 1970, four students at Kent State were shot by National Guardsmen during a protest.
Public support for further US involvement in Vietnam was not there — young Americans are dying in Vietnam’s jungles, while other young Americans are dying protesting American presence in Vietnam. On January 27, 1973 a cease-fire agreement was reached between US and North Vietnam, and US prisoners of war (POWs) began to return home. The last US combat troops left South Vietnam in 1973.
Final withdrawal date:
(Last US combat troops left South Vietnam)
Period when the US military was involved:
What triggered the US involvement:
Reeling from the 2001 Al Qaida attack on the World Trade Center towers in New York, the United States targeted Iraq, believing that Saddam Hussain’s government possessed nuclear weapons [that was later proved wrong], which posed a threat to America. US President George W. Bush also argued that Iraq provided support to Al Qaida.
When the US and Britain were dissatisfied with Iraq’s compliance on UN nuclear inspections, Bush, on March 17, 2003, issued an ultimatum to Saddam to leave the country in 48 hours. Saddam rejected it, and on March 20, the US and its allies attacked Iraq, dragging America into an involvement that last eight years.
Cost of war:
(Source: Neta Crawford, Boston University, Costs of War project). It includes Pentagon funding for the war, State Department spending, healthcare of Iraq War veterans, and the interest expense on debt incurred to fund 17 years of US military involvement in Iraq.
US lives lost:
(4,500 US military personnel, 3,600 US contractors, 15 US Department of Defence civilians, killed from 2003 to 2011).
Local lives lost:
(Source: Cost of War Project)
Circumstances leading to US withdrawal:
The US forces withdrew from Baghdad and other major cities on June 30, 2009, as part of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which set the stage for the end of combat operations on August 31, 2010. US combat troops eventually withdrew on December 18, 2011.
But they returned at the request of the Iraqi government three years later, when Daesh (ISIS) militants overran large parts of the country. After the Daesh defeat at the end of 2017, US forces remained to help prevent a revival of the terror group. The troops will withdraw by the end of 2021, following an agreement between US President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi.
Final withdrawal date:
Period when the US military was involved:
What triggered the US involvement:
On October 7, 2001, weeks after the Al Qaida attacked the US on September 11, President George W. Bush announced that airstrikes on Taliban and Al Qaida targets in Afghanistan had begun. The airstrikes continued for five days. Bush warned that Operation Enduring Freedom would entail “a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen.”
After routing the Taliban, the United States and NATO turned to rebuilding the country, spending billions trying to reconstruct a nation already ravaged by two decades of war. But with corruption rampant, hundreds of millions of dollars in reconstruction money was stolen or misappropriated.
In May 2011, a US Navy SEAL team killed Osama bin Laden in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In June, Obama announced that he would start bringing American forces home and hand over security duties to the Afghans by 2014. Obama ended major combat operations on Dec. 31, 2014, and transitioned to training and assisting Afghan security forces.
Nearly three years later, President Donald J. Trump said that although his first instinct had been to withdraw all troops, he stressed that any troop withdrawal would be based on combat conditions, not predetermined timelines.
Cost of war:
US lives lost:
(20,000 servicemen have been wounded)
Local lives lost:
(Source: Report by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs)
Circumstances leading to or surrounding withdrawal:
The United States spent at least $4 billion a year on the Afghan military, but military and police units in Afghanistan were riven by desertions, low recruitment rates, poor morale and the theft of pay and equipment by commanders.
A classified intelligence assessment presented to the Biden administration in spring said Afghanistan could fall largely under Taliban control within two to three years after the departure of international forces. The fall came swifter than that. Taliban fighters took over provincial capitals quickly and moved into Kabul on August 15.
Final withdrawal date:
(Troops withdrew on August 30, a day before the deadline) after 7,262 days.
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