President Barack Obama’s Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery celebrated the fact that for the first time in 14 years, the U.S. was no longer engaged in a major ground war.
"For many of us, this Memorial Day is especially meaningful. It is the first since our war in Afghanistan came to an end," Obama said. "Today is the first Memorial Day in 14 years that the United States is not engaged in a major ground war."
He also paid tribute to all military personnel who had fought in past conflicts, ranging from World War Two, to more recent wars like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Can we really say however, that the war in Afghanistan has truly ended? For the 10,000 troops that are still on the ground in Iraq putting their lives at risk, certainly it is still an ongoing battle. I also doubt that anyone has told the Taliban yet that the war is over. Later on in the speech, Obama does admit this fact.
“Today, fewer than 10,000 troops remain on a mission to train and assist Afghan forces. We’ll continue to bring them home and reduce our forces further, down to an embassy presence by the end of next year,” Obama said, “But Afghanistan remains a very dangerous place. And as so many families know, our troops continue to risk their lives for us.”
Promising solely an embassy presence offers the idea that after we train the Afghan forces, an era of peace will come to Afghanistan and shops will have lots of mannequins for sale. This would be acceptable if it were true. Celebrating the peace and the end of fighting would be a great way to pay tribute to all our soldiers have accomplished over the last decade.
Unfortunately, it seems that behind the scenes the war is still raging. To celebrate the fact that our soldiers have stepped out of the fight to the sidelines seems naïve at best. Especially when it would be so easy for us to get dragged back in.
As we speak, the U.S. is now involved in air campaigns against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, potentially creating more jihadists in the process. Yes, there is currently no “ground war”, but how long will that last? So far Obama has been hesitant to relaunch ground forces in Iraq, but we will see what happens as ISIS continues to strengthen.
Although no one enjoys the idea of putting our troops back into harms way, we would be better off if the President and his administration had worked to protect the gains that we had already made in previous wars. If you don’t remember, one of the major victories in the Iraq war was taking control of Ramadi, in the Anbar Province. Currently, it seems ISIS is once again hoisting their flag over the region.
Now, we will probably have to go back in to retake the capital our soldiers fought so hard to claim the first time.