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Warsaw, Poland –
"Why are we here?" Is a fundamental question that coalition troops in Afghanistan must answer.
The simple question has many different answers, said Army General Austin S. Miller, the new commander of the NATO Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan.
"Every nation has its own goals and there are NATO goals," Miller said before the meeting of the NATO Military Committee. "So you get a lot of different answers when you talk to the troops. But it all comes down to protecting citizens at home. "
It's easy enough to forget. The events that precipitated the military actions in Afghanistan took place 17 years ago. To put this in perspective, some of the coalition soldiers posted in Afghanistan were one year old when al-Qaeda terrorists killed 3,000 people in America.
They have no direct recollection of the planes crashing on the World Trade Center in New York, or of a plane slamming over the Pentagon, or of Americans firing back and forcing a plane requisitioned by terrorists to air. crush in a field in Pennsylvania. They are aware of September 11, 2001, because they studied it, but they do not have the visceral emotions that those who watched the Twin Towers fell or counted the number of dead friends in the rubble of the Pentagon.
Al-Qaida had refuge in Afghanistan. The Taliban leaders of the nation protected Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants when planning the attack on the United States.
NATO has invoked Article 5 of the Washington Treaty which created the alliance for – so far – the only period in its history, as the alliance nations came to the aid of America after horrible attack. Article 5 states that an attack on a member country is an attack against all.
More than 17 years after the attack, more than 1,100 NATO and coalition soldiers have lost their lives fighting terrorism in Afghanistan. And it's not just a conflict or an American problem. Terrorists hit London, Madrid, Paris, Nice, Bali, the Philippines, Mumbai and many other cities and countries.
Ungoverned or ungoverned areas attract terrorist groups. They use funds from the tax areas they occupy or, like the Taliban and others, money from illegal activities such as drug trafficking to finance their attacks. They use these safe places to train new terrorists and indoctrinate new recruits into the odious ideologies they adopt.
Make their country safer
Miller, who was commander of the NATO mission since September 2 only, reminds coalition troops that what they are doing in Afghanistan is making their countries safer. They protect their fellow citizens.
The mission "train, advise, assist" allows the Afghan security forces to fight against the enemy. They are working to give the Afghan government the security needed to ensure stability. This makes the nation unsustainable for terrorists who want to make it a refuge.
The solution in Afghanistan is reconciliation between the government and the Taliban. The war has been going on for 17 years. The NATO and coalition forces are long-term and the Taliban can not hope to wait for the coalition. The smart option is to reconcile and rebuild Afghanistan together, said the general.
Terrorist groups such as ISIS-Khorasan, Al-Qaida and others have no role to play in a new Afghanistan. Afghan security forces and coalition operatives are targeting these groups to crush them in order to erase their ideology.
Many challenges await Miller and the coalition. There will be elections in Afghanistan next month and presidential elections scheduled for next year. The coalition needs to provide more training to more units of the Afghan army and police. The Afghan Air Force must continue to grow and develop to provide support to those in the field. Neighboring countries must do more.
And the coalition troops in the country have to remember why they are here, said Miller: protecting their own citizens and families.
(Follow Jim Garamone on Twitter: @GaramoneDoDNews)
