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[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he War in Afghanistan officially ended in 2014, but the U.S. and NATO still have over 13,000 troops in Afghanistan. President Obama said in October, 2015 that U.S. soldiers will remain in Afghanistan until the end of his presidency, indefinitely prolonging the conflict. Peace Action is petitioning President Obama to bring our troops home.
Continued U.S. involvement in the country has sometimes had catastrophic consequences for the Afghan people, including an airstrike in October, 2015 on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz. This illegal bombing caused the deaths of 42 people and the injuries of another 30. In April, drone strikes in the southeastern province of Paktika killed 17 civilians. Mass Peace Action calls for an end to the covert and continual warfare that these bombings represent.
In June, President Obama, according to Reuters, “approved giving the U.S. military greater ability to accompany and to enable Afghan forces in offensive operations, including carrying out air strikes.” Recently, it is looking less and less like Obama will make good on his commitment to lower troop levels to 5,500 by the end of the year.
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Related Articles
Rural Afghans bear brutal cost of endless war – France24, June 4 2019
Americans Can’t Give up the Cult of War – ForeignPolicy, April 9 2019, Joseph Lovell
Time to End the War in Afghanistan – Ted Talk, 2011, Rory Stewart
MAPA Articles
- Learning the Lessons of Afghanistan
- How wars destroy cultures: The forgotten recent history of Afghanistan
- Military retaliation and war will only add to the carnage: Boston peace activists, 2001
- Ignoring the Original Sin in Afghanistan
- Is the US Military Finished with Afghanistan?
- The Truth about Torture
- Proposal from an Afghan Citizen for the Withdrawal of U.S. Troops from Afghanistan
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