On October 7, 2001, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. The war is now 16 years old \u2014 and that\u2019s not even counting the decade of U.S. intervention in the country during the Cold War.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump once advocated the \u201cspeedy withdrawal\u201d of U.S. troops from that country. As president, however, he\u2019s gone in the opposite direction, demanding the U.S. must now \u201cfight to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Phyllis Bennis, director of the IPS New Internationalism project, explains in this short video, Trump\u2019s plans to extend the war he once supported ending are even more worrisome for their lack of transparency. He\u2019s not said how many new troops he\u2019ll send or how long they\u2019ll be deployed. Worse still, civilian casualties in multiple U.S. wars have been on the rise since he took office \u2014 by 67 percent in just six months.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s clear by now that the solution to terrorism won\u2019t come from using military power, Bennis explains. That can only be achieved by diplomacy. \u201cIt\u2019s harder, it takes longer, it\u2019s not as sexy, it\u2019s not sexy on CNN, it\u2019s not any of those things,\u201d she concludes. \u201cBut it\u2019s the only thing that will work.\u201d<\/p>\n