New Questions on War in Afghanistan Give Way to Bigger One: What's Next?
New Questions on War in Afghanistan Give Way to Bigger One: What's Next? By Ileana Najarro - Tampa Bay Times
TAMPA — U.S. Central Command directs military operations in Afghanistan out of MacDill Air Force Base, guiding the troops — including men and women from the Tampa Bay area — who have fought the nation’s longest war.
Now, peace negotiations are resuming with the Taliban militants whom the United States first set out to depose and a new account of insider interviews in the Washington Post drives home the futility of a campaign that seems to have lacked a consistent strategy.
Eighteen years after the invasion of Afghanistan, the same question faces people touched by the war in Tampa and nationwide: What now?
To many, the answer seems no clearer than it has ever been.
“We want to make it simple, but it’s not simple,” said former CentCom commander William Fallon.
To Fallon, the Trump administration’s move to prioritize a peace settlement with the Taliban amounts to the latest example in a long history of bureaucrats chasing the wrong solution to a problem that grows more complicated as it drags on…