AVAW Response to Obama's "Withdrawal"

By Brock McIntosh, Co-founder of Afghanistan Veterans Against the War Committee

Last Wednesday night, President Obama announced what has been most accurately described as a “surge reversal”; to call it a “withdrawal” is somewhat misleading. Roughly 10,000 troops will be removed from Afghanistan this year while another roughly 20,000 will be withdrawn by the end of summer 2012, reducing troop levels to the pre-surge levels of autumn 2009: 70,000 soldiers. This number is still greater than the number of soldiers who were deployed in Afghanistan when President Obama first took office in January, 2009.

A vestige of triumph lay at the background of the speech. The President declared:

"Al Qaeda is under more pressure than at any time since 9/11… Together with the Pakistanis, we have taken out more than half of al Qaeda's leadership. And thanks to our intelligence professionals and Special Forces, we killed Osama bin Laden, the only leader that al Qaeda had ever known. This was a victory for all who have served since 9/11."

President Obama conceded that it was intelligence professionals and Special Operations Forces that led us to Osama bin Laden, and not the occupation of Afghanistan, which may have hindered that end. It was a half-truth to give credit to the Pakistanis in helping with the operation, as evidence that the Government of Pakistan harbored Islamic extremists continues to surface. Although it has publicly attacked such groups in the past, the Pakistani government was not informed of the operation that ultimately killed bin Laden, so it was indeed a breach of sovereignty.

It was also highly misleading to call Osama bin Laden the “only leader that al Qaeda had ever known.” This statement was merely a justification to the American public that the hundreds of thousands of deaths and trillions of dollars that led to bin Laden’s death were worth it. Although politically referred to as a cult-like terrorist organization, experts recognize the group as an insurgent organization with multiple leaders and back-up plans for setbacks like this.

There was one setback, however, that al Qaeda was not prepared for: the so-called Arab Spring. The nonviolent, secular revolutions that have erupted across the Muslim World may be a force more powerful than the War on Terror to effectively end al Qaeda – a group that had previously grown and collected strategic victories because of American hegemony and militarization in the region. The Arab Spring is removing many of the autocratic dictators that the U.S. has supported under the guise of spreading democracy and securing the world. It was this relationship between the United States and the Muslim world that al Qaeda referenced as justification for September 11.

Afghanistan Veterans Against the War, a new committee of IVAW reflecting the recent addition of Afghanistan to our mission and Points of Unity, agrees with President Obama that it is time to focus on nation building here at home. Another drop of blood and another wasted dollar on the War on Terror only delays the rebuilding of America and the nation building to be done autonomously by the ordinary people around the world throwing off the yokes of imperialism and dictatorship.