TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club(YJC)-As part of the effort, the first order of business for the sponsor of the ad campaign, Concerned Veterans of America (CVA), is to press US lawmakers to “get America out of Afghanistan,” US-based military news outlet Task & Purpose reported Friday.
In the 30-second television ad that is due to be aired in states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, five US veterans of the country’s 18-year military occupation of Afghanistan speak against the longest war in American history.
"When will it end?" asks US Army veteran Laura Hechel in the ad. "Over 60 percent of veterans like me think it's time to get out of Afghanistan," further states another veteran, former Marine Adam Miller.
"We would like to see a full withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan as soon as possible," said Nate Anderson, an Army Green Beret and executive director of CVA, as quoted in the report.
"The reality for us is that leaving our forces there only puts them at further risk in a country where we don't have a strategic objective that we have not already met," Anderson said, pointing to the assassination of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, “punishing” the Taliban for harboring al-Qaeda, and “largely uprooting the terror group” from the country.
"All those things happened," he added. Yet, his group supports Trump administration peace talks with Taliban and submitting to its demand the US troops should pull out from Afghanistan with or without a deal.
According to the report, “18 years, 3 months, and 9 days after ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ was officially launched in Afghanistan, the war continues to grind on, albeit under a different name – Resolute Support, purportedly a NATO-led mission to train, advise and assist Afghan security forces.
In addition to the human cost of more than 2,400 American troops killed and tens of thousands wounded, the US government has spent nearly $2 trillion on the war in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, secret documents published by The Washington Post in December showed that top officials in Washington had repeatedly lied to the American public about the war in Afghanistan, which many believed was unwinnable.