America's Failed State Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen: Still Less Than Half a Strategy
America's Failed State Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen: Still Less Than Half a Strategy by Anthony H. Cordesman – Center for Strategic and International Studies
The U.S. needs to make critical and time-sensitive decisions regarding the future of its wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen – as well as in its broader struggle with terrorism and extremism, and its dealings with Iran. The U.S. is now trapped in four “failed state” wars where there are no clear prospects for lasting “victory” unless the current threats can be defeated at the military level and the host country can both develop forms of politics and governance that can create an enduring peace and also make enough progress in recovery and development to sustain peaceful stability.
At this point, it is unclear that tactical victories against a current enemy can create a temporary peace in any given war. It is all too clear that any form of real and lasting peace requires “victory” at the civil level as well as the military one, and that such a victory has three critical components: political unity, effective governance, and economic progress. Economic progress must mean progress for all of the elements of a country’s population in order to provide a lasting incentive for unity and cooperation among the major factions.
The U.S. cannot go on lurching from withdrawals to new commitments and back or hoping that some limited additional military commitment will somehow sustain a war of attrition that mysteriously has a happy ending. Political, military, and economic forces are at work in all four of America's current wars where the U.S. needs far clearer strategies. And, if the United States is to have any lasting success, it must be a strategy that has all three elements of a successful grand strategy – warfighting, peacemaking, and lasting stability…