Why big states lose small wars: A case study of USA’s war in Afghanistan

Fighting a battle against your enemies is not easy. In war, there are always some rules and regulations that have to be followed and it is important to know that what can be done or what cannot be done in a war. But the most important and essential factors in wars are modern weapons, military equipment, resources, strong policies, and tactics. Despite the well-trained military, technologies, and equipment’s the superpowers were failed to win the small wars. An example of the USA fits best in these cases. Being a superpower, USA has everything, every modern technology, equipment, and well-trained army but still despite having all these things the USA failed to win the Vietnam war and now USA is ready to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, which shows that the US is going to lose this war too and failed in bringing stable peace in Afghanistan by ending the war on terror. Now the policymakers of the US are well aware that the US’s strategy of war on terror is no longer stable and they are finding ways to withdraw their troops from Afghan land. It has been clearly shown that in today’s world, the main concern of superpowers is to defeat some terrorist groups and organizations like Al Qaeda, Daesh, etc., and not to bring stable peace by ending wars. The US with the professional military failed to ensure peace in Afghanistan and now the unsuccessful war will make things worse in Afghanistan. There is also another variable behind US failure is that the United States did not know the Taliban’s nature and culture of Afghanistan. Afghanistan has a mountainous region with different ethnonational groups. It has a huge history of local autonomy which has no tradition of democracy. But the United States did not understand this concept of Afghanistan. According to Sun Tzu “Know yourselves and know your enemy and you will win a thousand battles”

In the case of the Vietnam war, Viet Cong was confident about winning the war and they had a firm belief that they will drive out the American military troops from their land because they were united and determinant. But on the other side, American soldiers were demotivated and stoned. Lack of confidence and determination was the major reason for the US’s losing war in Vietnam that is why a small untrained group crushed a well-trained army of the US.  And this is what exactly happening in Afghanistan right now, the innumerable attacks by the Taliban’s are now forcing them towards withdrawal. This depicts that it is important to have determination, confidence, and strong strategies because, without these factors, one cannot win the war because determination is the key strength of forces in wars.

US-Afghan is the most complex ongoing conflict in the world. George Bush who was the president of the US at that time demanded from Taliban’s to hand over Osama Bin Laden, the head of Al-Qaeda but the Taliban’s refused this and after the 9/11 attacks, US declared war on terror in Afghanistan by claiming that they want Afghanistan free from terrorists.  In October, the US military launched operations and airstrikes in Afghanistan. Human rights watch issued a report in which they urged to stop military operations in Afghanistan because of their violation of human rights records in Vietnam but President George Bush made sure that they will only attack Taliban’s sites and basic necessities will be provided to suffering people of Afghanistan. After the dismissal of the Taliban’s government, their leader Muhammad Umar declared an insurgency against the US and its puppets. In 2003, the Taliban stated that they are reuniting and ready for war to banish US forces from their land Afghanistan. They wanted their regime back and they urge people to raise their voices against US troops. The Taliban attacks steadily increased in frequency in which many US and Afghan government soldiers and workers died. Taliban started building forces in different areas of Afghanistan. The NATO forces on the other hand also increase their forces. In 2004, a US-backed government was made for Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai was declared as the President of Afghanistan. The US kept on increasing its number of troops in Afghanistan which reached the highest number in 2011. With the increase in the number of troops, the expenditure was also increasing. It was estimated that the US had to spend $1.5m per day on the troops which included their clothing, food, shelter, and some other expenses.

Till now, the US has spent billions of dollars on this war on terror. After spending this lump of money and continuously failing to bring peace through force. The US had fought for more than 20 years, and after failing to bring peace through war. It had initiated peace talks with the Taliban. After numerous dialogues, a final agreement is about to reach, and the peace talks are about to become successful.

Conclusion

War in Afghanistan and Vietnam shows us that without strong strategies, policies, enthusiasm, and without knowing about the other party a war cannot be won. Superiority in military and technology does not give assurance of winning the wars. Such superpowers do not take these small wars seriously, their soldiers are less enthusiastic and determinant in small wars, which results in losing the wars. All things considered, the Afghan disaster isn’t, a military thrashing. The Taliban never rout the U.S. military is a huge scope conflict of arms or caused its powers there to fall. Rather, it is annihilation in Clausewitz’s sense-18 years of war and “nation-building” didn’t create the political points that U.S. pioneers had set for themselves. The explanation is genuinely basic: Afghanistan’s destiny was never going to be controlled by outsiders originating from 7,000 miles away.

All in all, it very well may be said that Henry Kissinger’s words about Vietnam War stayed valid for the Afghanistan war; the guerrilla wins in the event that he doesn’t lose.

Syeda Fadia Askary
Syeda Fadia Askary
I am a student of Strategic Studies at the National Defence University, Islamabad. I also worked as a freelance columnist.