The end of the Afghanistan War is a good time to look back and reflect on what we did wrong.
Republicans are trying to redirect blame toward President Joe Biden for what happened during the withdrawal. Better thinkers are looking further back. How much did Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Donald Trump contribute to the problem?
George W. Bush started the war but the nation demanded it after 9/11. Is there nothing that America did right?
Actually, there was. Being old gives me perspective. I personally saw a just war in the Middle East, fought for the right reasons, in the right way, and ending the right way. President George H.W. Bush gave us the example of how to fight a war in the Middle East. He did it right and the America did it right under his leadership.
President George W. Bush later created a mess that we still can’t get out of.
On Aug. 2, 1990, the Iraqi Army under the dictator Saddam Hussein invaded and occupied Kuwait. George H.W. Bush put together the largest international military force since World War II with the declared goal of restoring the lawful government of Kuwait. He put international law on his side with the authorization of a United Nations. And he got the financial backing of Germany, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to fight the war.
Biden has said that fighting the war in Afghanistan has cost the United States $300 million every day for 20 years. How much does a highway bridge cost? How much does a water plant cost?
Under the leadership of George H.W. Bush, America fought side by side with most of the world to efficiently and effectively defeat Hussein and restore Kuwait to it’s lawful government in just seven months.
And then America got out of the war. We were out until George W. Bush put us right back in again for all of the wrong reasons.
Biden has said that in any war, America should have “clear achievable goals” and “stay clearly focused on the fundamental national security interests of the United States.” Isn’t that what George H.W. Bush did? He paid a political price in the next election when Clinton made him one of the relatively few one-term presidents.
America has the ability to do it right. We just have a hard time remembering how.
Dan Mabbutt
Dan Mabbutt graduated as an electrical engineer from the University of Utah and retired from a career in data processing in Salt Lake City. He now lives in the Zion Park gateway town of Springdale.