Afghanistan war

American Veterans who risked their lives in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars are increasingly opposing foreign interventionism that continues to dominate the Washington, DC, political establishment.

The latest Pew Research Center survey on the issue finds that 64 percent of Veterans say the Iraq War is “not worth fighting,” along with 62 percent of all American adults who agree. Only 33 percent of Veterans say the Iraq War is worth fighting.

Likewise, nearly 60 percent of Veterans and all American adults say the Afghanistan War was not worth the fight. Less than 40 percent say the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan was worth fighting.

In interviews with the New York Times , Veterans explained their support for President Trump’s effort to end what he has dubbed the “endless wars” across the Middle East which has cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

“All in all, it is a lot of wasted lives and money and time and effort spent to accomplish a goal we never accomplished,” said 31-year-old Tyler Wade, who received a Purple Heart for his service in Afghanistan, told the Times .

Veteran Dan Caldwell said American men and women signed up to defend their homeland against terrorists, not to nation-build whole countries and remain until stability in the region is regained.

“For conservative-leaning veterans, we signed up to defend our country,” Caldwell said. “We didn’t sign up to build girls schools in the Al Anbar Province. We had friends killed or wounded in action; it wasn’t clear for what.”

Veteran Amber Smith, 37-years-old — who served in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2005 and 2008 — said the minority of Veterans in Congress who continue to support U.S. military intervention in foreign countries do so at the expense of their brothers and sisters in the uniform.

“We gave it nearly two decades, thousands of U.S. lives and hundreds of billions of dollars, and we have learned at this point there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan,” Smith told the Times . “There are a few veterans in Congress who are very pro-military-involvement in the Middle East. Well, they already fought that fight. They are not going back. As we have seen, when Trump talks about reducing troops, everyone in D.C. becomes unhinged. Unfortunately, the U.S. service members pay the consequences for that.”

Even when it comes to the U.S. intervention in Syria, Veterans by a majority oppose the effort. The Pew Research Center survey found that 55 percent of Veterans said U.S. involvement in Syria is “not worth it” while almost 60 percent of American adults agreed.

Former President George W. Bush led the U.S. into war in Afghanistan and Iraq with more than 4,500 Americans dying in Iraq — including more than 3,500 killed in combat — and up to 205,000 Iraqi citizens dying in the war since March 2003.

In total, Bush’s post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and intervention in Pakistan have resulted in the deaths of between 480,000 and 507,000 people — including nearly 7,000 American soldiers who had deployed to the regions.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder .

The daughter of a former Afghan politician hiding from the Taliban has accused the UK Government of having “double standards” over the plight of refugees.

Shabnam Nishat has been fighting to get her mum safely to Britain since the UK withdrew its troops from Afghanistan last August.

As the last troops left Kabul, Taliban forces sealed off the airport to most Afghans still waiting to leave.

Ms Nishat’s mum, who cannot be named for safety reasons, worked for United Nations in Kabul. She has been in hiding since the Taliban threatened her over the phone, saying: “If we find you – we will kill you”.

Ms Nishat believes “the Government does not care” for her mum of other Afghans trying to flee the country because of the colour of their skin.

Shabnam, who has lived in Leamington Spa for the last 15 years said: “We are not white or European, but we need help.

“My mother calls me at night saying she can’t sleep because she fears someone is coming to kill her.

“Life in Afghanistan is particularly horrible for women like my mother.

“When the Ukraine war started – [the UK Government] forgot all about my country and my family. People are all the same. We must help everyone.”

She contacted Shadow Universities Minister Matt Western, her local MP for help, before UK troops left Kabul last year.

Mr Western appealed to Home Secretary Priti Patel to bring more Afghans to safety.

He said: “I urge you and your colleagues to capitalise on the British publics obvious openness to accepting those fleeing war zones to intensify efforts to create a route for relatives to join their families in the UK.”

Meanwhile, around 132,900 applications have been made for visas by Ukrainians fleeing the war, and 102,300 visas have been issued, as of Wednesday.

The Homes for Ukraine scheme launched about six weeks ago, allowing Brits to offer accommodation to those fleeing the war-torn nation.

The Ministry of Defence says only 9,000 people have been relocated since the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy launched.

In total, more than 18,000 Afghans had been evacuated to the UK by early March – but many thousands have been forced to live in temporary hotel accommodation and await visas.

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Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) unveiled his foreign policy vision Tuesday that would “keep Americans safe and prosperous,” while ending America’s decades-long wars in the Middle East.

Sen. Hawley delivered his vision for a new American foreign policy strategy at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) that would replace the bipartisan foreign policy consensus that he called “progressive universalism” with a foreign policy that would benefit the interests of the American working class.

The Missouri conservative said that America’s new foreign policy should focus on keeping America prosperous while avoiding unending conflicts across the world. Hawley charged:

Meanwhile, the pursuit of the universalist dream left the United States without a clear strategic focus, but with metastasizing commitments- -commitments that have been paid for in the dearly earned dollars of the American working class, and in the dearly precious lives of American soldiers. [Emphasis added]

And let’s not forget, as we honor our veterans, who these soldiers are. They are drawn overwhelmingly from middle- and working-class families, a nd from families with a history of military service. [Emphasis added]

The burden of this nation’s long wars has fallen disproportionately on these Americans, and this country cannot continue to ask them to fight on without a clear purpose and without clear priorities. [Emphasis added]

It is time for a new departure, based on America’s needs in this new century. Because the point of American foreign policy should not be to remake the world, but to keep Americans safe and prosperous. [Emphasis added]

Hawley’s call for greater restraint in the United States matches the interests of the American middle class and veterans.

A Rasmussen Poll in October found that most working-class and swing voters said that the United States is “too involved” in the Middle East.

The November Pew Research Center survey found that 64 percent of veterans and 62 percent of American adults find that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are not worth fighting.

The Missouri conservative senator that the bipartisan consensus was built around “American hegemony” as well as the “expansion of progressive ideas, progressive institutions, and progressive values, worldwide.”

Hawley contended that the American left pushed for progressive universalism by emphasizing the creation and expansion of multilateral institutions such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United Nations (UN), which “stressed international norms and international law as the building blocks of a progressive global order.”

On the obverse side, Hawley criticized those on the American Right, including neoconservatives, that called for “building a world of democracies” through regime change. Neoconservatives’ push for regime change and installing democracies abroad has led to the decades-long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Sen. Hawley said that in the 21st century, it is time for America to replace the bipartisan progressive universalism that both protects the American middle class while preventing regional domination from countries such as China.

Sen. Hawley told Breitbart News in an interview in September that if the Republican Party “wants to have a future,” it will have to become a “movement of working people.” Hawley said that along with pursuing more fair trade deals and improving Americans’ health care, the American middle class wants to end America’s forever wars.

Sen. Hawley noted during his speech that America has “rejected” imperialist ambitions to control other countries.

“Imperial domination violates our principles, and it threatens our character,” Sen. Hawley said. “Our aim must be to prevent imperialism, not exercise it; to stop domination, not foster it.”

The Missouri senator said that instead of avoiding conflict in the Middle East, America should counter a rising and imperialist China, which threatens the freedom of those in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and pressures American corporations such as Disney and NBDA to “throw overboard free speech at the first sign of Beijing’s commercial pressure.”

Sen. Hawley said:

Ours must be a foreign policy for the people who built this country; one that honors our workers by protecting their livelihoods; protects our way of life by thwarting hegemons; and respects our service-members by asking them to sacrifice only for a justified purpose and only with a reasonable plan.

“Our nation will be safer for it. Our people will be more prosperous for it. And the world will be better because of it,” Hawley concluded in his speech.

Prince Harry is approaching the 10-year anniversary of his life-changing second tour of Afghanistan in which he fired on the Taliban .

The Duke of Sussex left Britain for the front line in Helmand Province in September 2012, days before his 28th birthday.

Harry had been to the warzone before as part of Britain’s ground forces. But that tour was cut short when his presence was leaked by an international media outlet in defiance of a news blackout agreed to by the British press to boost his security.

When his presence became widely known, Harry was withdrawn just 10 weeks into his first deployment, in 2007.

However, the duke was determined not to repeat the disappointment the second time around in 2012. He not only completed his second tour but also experienced at least one moment powerful enough he compared it to his experiences with Princess Diana and Meghan Markle .

Harry told the Armchair Expert podcast in May 2021: “Helplessness, that is my biggest Achilles heel. There were three major times that I felt completely helpless, one when I was a kid in the back of a car with my mum being chased by paparazzi, two was in Afghanistan in an Apache helicopter, and then the third one was with my wife.”

Ten years on, Prince Harry has been stripped of honorary military titles given to him by the royal family, including the highly coveted role of Captain General of the Royal Marines.

However, he retains his medals, his rank and his experiences, which have in the intervening years allowed him to build a relationship with the forces community both in Britain and America .

Harry’s first tour saw him involved in a major operation to disrupt the Taliban’s communications and part of his role was to coordinate strikes from the ground, the BBC reported.

However, when he came back five years later, he had completed training as a co-pilot gunner on an Apache attack helicopter, operating in the skies above Helmand to offer covering fire for troops on the ground.

British newspaper The Sun reported that he killed a Taliban commander from the air in December 2012.

Harry was asked about the suggestion during an interview at the end of his tour. While he did not confirm that specific story, he acknowledged he had fired on the enemy.

The prince told the BBC : “If there’s people trying to do bad stuff to our guys, then we’ll take them out of the game, I suppose. Take a life to save a life. The squadron’s been out here. Everyone’s fired a certain amount.”

The prince also fired on Taliban forces who had ambushed American soldiers, giving the troops the opportunity to airlift to safety.

Among them was Christopher “Tripp” Zanetis, from Indiana, whose parents told The Sun of the royal’s role in the rescue.

John Zanetis, 73, his father, said: “Prince Harry came in with his protection squadron and blew the enemy to pieces.”

Sarah Zanetis, 63, his mother, said: “They provided enough cover for Tripp to get his men loaded on the helicopter. I believe there were Taliban members killed.”

It is possible the world may get to know a lot more about the prince’s time in Afghanistan later in 2022 when his memoirs are due for publication.

A press release, sent to Newsweek in July 2021, read: “Covering his lifetime in the public eye from childhood to the present day, including his dedication to service, the military duty that twice took him to the frontlines of Afghanistan, and the joy he has found in being a husband and father, Prince Harry will offer an honest and captivating personal portrait, one that shows readers that behind everything they think they know lies an inspiring, courageous, and uplifting human story.”

Harry’s past comments on his military service suggest there may be a powerful story to tell.

He told the Declassified podcast in November 2020: “I wear the Poppy to recognize all those who have served; the soldiers I knew, as well as those I didn’t. The soldiers who were by my side in Afghanistan, those who had their lives changed forever, and those that didn’t come home.”

He added: “Being able to wear my uniform, being able to stand up in service of one’s country, these are amongst the greatest honors there are in life.

“To me, the uniform is a symbol of something much bigger, it’s symbolic of our commitment to protecting our country, as well as protecting our values.

“These values are put in action through service, and service is what happens in the quiet and in the chaos. It’s what happens in the darkness, it’s what happens when people aren’t looking. It’s what happens on and off the battlefield.”

At the Democratic debate in Des Moines, Iowa Tuesday, Senator Bernie Sanders took former Vice President Joe Biden to task for his support of the war in Iraq during the Bush administration.

Sanders said he never believed what he was told by the Bush administration about the war and made every effort to stop the armed conflict from happening.

“The war in Iraq turned out to be the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of this country,” Sanders said. “As Joe well knows, we lost 4,500 brave troops. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died. We have spent trillions of dollars on that endless war, money which should go into health care and education and infrastructure in this country.”

“Joe and I listened to what Dick Cheney and George Bush and [Donald] Rumsfeld had to say,” Sanders continued. “I thought they were lying. I didn’t believe them for a moment.”

“I took to the floor,” Sanders added. “I did everything I could to prevent that war. Joe saw it differently.”

Sanders’ comments came after Biden expressed his view that his vote to authorize military force in Iraq in 2002 was a “mistake.”

“I said 13 years ago it was a mistake to give the president the authority to go to war if, in fact, he couldn’t get inspectors into Iraq to stop what was thought to be the attempt to get a nuclear weapon,” Biden said. “It was a mistake and I acknowledge that.”

Biden said he would only send troops into battle “very, very reluctantly” and then, only for the right reason.

“We should not send anyone anywhere unless the overwhelming vital interests of the United States are at stake,” Biden said. “They were not at stake [in Afghanistan]. They were not at stake in Iraq and it was a mistake in vote. But I think my record overall, on everything we’ve done, I’m ready to compare it to anybody’s on this stage.”

Biden has told reporters that he was in opposition to the Iraq War from its inception, saying that he opposed President George W. Bush’s decisions.

“From the moment ‘shock and awe’ started,” Biden said during the Democratic debate in July 2019, “from that moment I was opposed to the effort and I was outspoken as much as anyone at all in the Congress and the administration.”

Before the decision to invade Iraq was made, Biden was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In 2002, Biden voted to allow the usage of military force against Iraq.

“It is appalling that after 18 years Joe Biden still refuses to admit he was dead wrong on the Iraq War,” said senior adviser to Bernie Sanders’ campaign Jeff Weaver in a Saturday statement. “Unlike 23 of his Senate colleagues who got it right, Biden made explicitly clear that he was voting for war, and even after the war started, he boasted that he didn’t regret it.”