The Afghanistan Quagmire: World’s Best Military Pushed to Breaking Point Over an Unclear Mission
Will Keola Thomas – Afghanistan Study Group
It’s impossible for Republican Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina to ignore the enormous costs of the war in Afghanistan. That’s because those costs are borne disproportionately by the constituents of his district, which is home to Cherry Point (the world’s largest Marine Corp Air Station), Camp Lejeune (where 43,000 Marines are based), Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, and more than 60,000 retired servicemen and women.
While one would expect that having such a large segment of his constituency in uniform would lead Rep. Jones to toe the Pentagon’s line on the war in Afghanistan, his constant interaction with those service-members has in fact led him to become one of Congress’ most vocal and consistent critics of continuing U.S. military involvement in a conflict that he says is “…physically and mentally breaking the military.”
In February, Rep. Jones co-sponsored a bipartisan bill that could have saved the U.S. more than $100 billion a year by ending the war in Afghanistan. That legislative effort hit a roadblock when an odd-couple marriage of President Obama and newly elected House Republicans who support continuing the counterproductive status quo in Afghanistan refused to support the legislation.
But the temporary setback hasn’t silenced Walter Jones. His constituents returning from tours in Afghanistan won’t let him rest. As he says in this video interview with Michael Ostrolenk:
“I’m hearing from Marines that they don’t know what the end point is in Afghanistan. And why in the world are we supporting a corrupt government? Why are we letting our kids die for a corrupt government?…Please for God’s sake pick up the phone and call your senators and House members and say, “Get our troops out of Afghanistan.”
