INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A coterie of former US government officials and academics on Friday opened what will be an extensive examination of America&s 20-year war in
Afghanistan, the nation&s longest conflict
&Today we make history,& said Shamila N
Chaudhary, co-chair of the Afghanistan War Commission, the Washington Post reported
&Never before has the United States commissioned such a wide-ranging independent legislative assessment of its own decision-making in the
aftermath of a conflict.The 16-member bipartisan panel has been tasked by Congress with determining what went wrong and what US leaders
could do differently the next time the United States goes to war
Their mandate encompasses policies and actions taken by four presidential administrations, the US military, the State Department, US allies,
and many other agencies, organizations and people.The commission has 18 months to carry out its research and until August 2026 to deliver a
final public report.The chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan has repeatedly been criticized by some members of the Congress and the
Republicans.The Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee is expected next month to deliver a final report detailing the findings of
its investigation of the withdrawal.The war commission&s 4½-hour discussion Friday, held in Washington, featured former ambassadors,
military officers and CIA personnel as witnesses
It drew a small crowd of observers, many of whom were also connected to the war.Colin F
Jackson, co-chair of the commission said it will endeavor to produce &a full, objective, rigorous, unvarnished and unflinching account of
our performance as a government and a military,There were convoluted chains of command throughout the war; disruptive personality clashes
between American decision-makers and agencies; and commanding officers served tours of duty that were so short as to represent ''the
institutional equivalent of a frontal lobotomy,& said another witness, Ronald Neumann, a former ambassador to Afghanistan.There was a
terribly devised system for parliamentary elections that invited fraud, said Noah Coburn, a political anthropologist who provided testimony
There was too much public meddling in Afghan politics by US leaders, and too little policy input solicited from the Afghans
Poor US decisions when it came to security partners, development and investments fueled corruption, which spread mistrust of the government
and support for the anti-government Islamic Emirate, said Coburn.Among the obvious points of interest, Jackson said, will be the decision to
invade Afghanistan in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks
The commissioners will examine the decision to surge US forces in Afghanistan in 2009
They will look at the decision-making that went into negotiations with the Islamic Emirate
And of course, they will look at decisions related to the withdrawal
&For so many of us, the war still lingers in our minds
We carry the moral, physical and emotional injuries in our daily lives,& Chaudhary said
&Closure may not be possible for everyone.& But a space is needed for &civic discourse,& she added.The post US commission opens inquiry of
Afghanistan war first appeared on Ariana News.
