Sadly, I suspect that most historians will look back at February 13, 2014 as the day the United States officially lost the war in Afghanistan. If you look at the objectives going into this war, our goal was to defeat the Taliban and to put in place a government that would act as an ally in the region and prevent terrorists from operating with impunity.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai acted in complete defiance of the United States today when he purposefully released many of our prisoners of war that we had handed over to him. He set individuals free that were directly involved with the killing of our troops. Many of these released prisoners will start immediately planning their next attack against our forces.
Wars can be lost multiple ways. They can be lost militarily or they can be lost politically. The soldiers of our military can keep their heads held high knowing they did everything that was asked of them. Many of them sacrificed more than most of us could ever imagine. This war was lost politically. Our politicians and government officials have once again let us down. But let there be no doubt about it… this war has been lost.
