Drawn-out Afghanistan War drains post-9/11 fervor

Rick Hampson | USA TODAY

Next week's 12th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks likely will be the last on which American combat troops fight what has become not only the longest war in U.S. history, but the most unpopular.

No American war, not Vietnam, Korea or Iraq, has ever fallen as far in public esteem.

In the months after the United States invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, about nine in 10 Americans expressed support for the war. Today, about three in 10 do, a plunge of 60 percentage points. Never has our support for a war started so high and sunk so low.

As the nation debates a military strike in Syria, it's natural to wonder how Afghanistan — which began as a righteous fight Americans said they were ready to wage for as long as it took — came to this.

John Mueller, an Ohio State University expert on war and public opinion, says it was really two wars, interrupted by another in Iraq.

The first Afghanistan War — the "good" one, 2001-02 — routed Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and their Taliban hosts. The second, which intensified around 2006 after the Taliban regrouped, has become the long war. It's a story of shifting goals, unreliable allies, elusive enemies, lost lives, depleted funds.

Through it all, the annual 9/11 remembrances have reminded Americans of why — for better or worse — we fight.

James Lindsay, a foreign policy expert at the Brookings Institution, once said that if Americans waver as casualties mount, all they would have to do is watch the video of men and women jumping from the 100th floor of the World Trade Center.

But by this time next year, the U.S. will be only a few months away from the scheduled withdrawal of its last combat troops. Here is a look at the war's trajectory through the prism of America's new memorial day.

Sept. 11, 2002: Victorious

U.S. dead: 36

U.S. cost: $20 billion

U.S. troops: 7,000

In Kabul, apart from a brief flag-lowering ceremony and a moment of silence, the U.S. military is all business.

"Our intent is to have troops in the field and planes in the air, doing what the American people sent us here to do — to find and fight terrorists," says Maj. Gary Tallman. "That's the best memorial we can give."

Some revive an old tradition — writing messages on ordnance. "In memory of 9-11-2001," is inscribed on a Maverick missile. On another: "Osama, this is for your momma."

The 9/11 attacks provide soldiers with all the motivation they need. Pfc. Allen Cabrera joined the 82nd Airborne because "the image of the people jumping out of the buildings got me so angry."

A cautionary note comes from Sgt. William Duncan, a helicopter maintenance crew chief. He supports the mission but doesn't want it to become "one of these 10-year deals."

America's focus already has shifted to Saddam Hussein and Iraq. In a speech on terrorism for delivery the next day at the United Nations, President George W. Bush devotes two sentences to Afghanistan.

Sept. 11, 2003: Reconstruction

U.S. dead: 60

U.S. cost: $35 billion

U.S. troops: 10,000

At Bagram Air Base's 9/11 ceremony, the stage has a big photo of the burning twin towers and the message, "We Shall Overcome."

As the American war effort shifts toward consolidation and reconstruction, public interest in Afghanistan languishes. There are plans in Afghanistan to consider a proposed constitution, to move NATO peacekeepers out into the provinces, to train 20,000 police.

But outside of the capital, most of which is controlled by warlords, insurgents have been attacking government officials and aid workers.

Al Jazeera airs video with the first images of bin Laden in nearly two years. He's climbing over rocky mountain terrain with a rifle slung over his shoulder — in Afghan garb.

Sept. 11, 2004: Distraction

U.S. dead: 102

U.S. cost: $50 billion

U.S. troops: 18,000

About 300 soldiers in a tent at Bagram hear readings from the Bible and the Quran, patriotic songs and speeches about their mission. A few weep as they watch video of the twin towers reduced to rubble and the Pentagon with a hole punched in it.

Next month's presidential election, in which interim leader Hamid Karzai is favored, has raised hopes for a democratic Afghanistan.

Bush says three-quarters of al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan on 9/11 have been captured or killed. But the theater commander says the Taliban has regrouped in the south and east, along the Pakistani border.

A video statement by bin Laden's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, warns that Americans aren't safe as long as their government commits crimes against Muslims. He says victory is just a matter of time.

Sept. 11, 2005: Sideshow

U.S. dead: 194

U.S. cost: $70 billion

U.S. troops: 20,000

To hear Maj. Gen. John Brennan speak at a 9/11 observance in Kabul, the U.S. mission sounds less like war than nation-building: "We work every day to help build a strong national government and to improve the lives of Afghans, so that terrorists will never again have a safe haven in this part of the world."

About 7,500 miles away, the U.S. Military Academy's first cadet from Afghanistan has just completed six weeks' basic training. Shoaib Yosoufzai's education is part of the effort to build a professional military for his nation.

The 20-year-old, who grew up under Taliban rule, says he wants to study civil engineering to be able to return home to help build bridges, dams, power plants and roads — "practical things."

Sept. 11, 2006: Portents

U.S. dead: 291

U.S. cost: $89 billion

U.S. troops: 20,000

At a 9/11 memorial in Kabul, soldiers unveil a plaque and lay a floral wreath. Some are still driven by memories of the morning five years ago. Sgt. Charles Hodgson was at the Pentagon to help a buddy with a paycheck problem when suddenly "there was a big explosion. It went dark. There was smoke everywhere." Among the 184 killed there were two guys with whom he played basketball.

Sgt. Samson Adeyemi was in Queens, where he could see smoke from Ground Zero. He's fighting, he says, because after five years "the (Afghan) people are not capable of taking care of the Taliban."

The capital is tense after a car bombing three days before killed 16, including two U.S. soldiers. Additional police are on the streets, searching cars at roadblocks. The day before, when Coca-Cola opened a new $25 million factory, a sniper was stationed on the roof.

In Khost province, a Taliban suicide attacker detonates a bomb at a funeral for the governor, a Karzai ally who was killed the previous day in a similar attack. Four Cabinet ministers escape unhurt, but six people are killed and dozens wounded.

"The war has lost the focus it had in those months after 9/11," according to a USA TODAY editorial. Afghanistan, says the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "remains … the unfinished task it became when the Bush administration decided to attack Iraq."

Sept. 11, 2007: Resurrection

U.S. dead: 380

U.S. cost: $128 billion

U.S. troops: 23,700

Where is bin Laden? In a video released for the anniversary, he urges sympathizers to join "the caravan of martyrs" and introduces the videotaped last testament of 9/11 hijacker Waleed al-Shehri, who warns the U.S.: "We shall come at you from your front and back, your right and left."

U.S. officials continue to report progress in Afghanistan, even as the nation endures its most violent year since 2001. Suicide bombings are occurring at a record pace, and U.S. officials now estimate the number of Taliban fighters at 10,000, including a growing share of foreign fighters.

At the U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan, a memorial stone is dedicated to Peter Ganci, the New York City fire chief who died while rescuing people. At Bagram, a crowd falls silent at the symbolic moment of the first jetliner's striking the Trade Center. At the U.S. Embassy, soldiers offer prayers at a flagpole where rubble from the attacks is buried.

"We are here now six years later, not as a conquering force … but rather to do what is right to seek out and destroy our common enemy," Maj. Gen. Robert Cone tells soldiers. "We will train and equip the Afghans. We will help them to provide for their people because we are Americans."

But at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Washington, Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold says the U.S. should have focused more on Afghanistan and less on Iraq. He calls the result "simply tragic."

Sept. 11, 2008: Recrimination

U.S.dead: 526

U.S. cost: $171 billion

U.S. troops: 33,000

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tells Congress the U.S. is "running out of time" in Afghanistan. He says that while he thinks victory is still possible, "I'm not convinced we're winning."

What went wrong? Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama says the Bush administration's neglect of Afghanistan led to the Taliban's comeback. He says troops should be moved from Iraq to Afghanistan.

U.S. commanders say they need an additional 10,000 troops — about three times as many as they are scheduled to get this winter from Iraq.

The war is getting wider. During the summer, Bush secretly approved raids inside Pakistan. Now Pakistan's prime minister complains that a special forces attack a week before about a mile over the border killed innocent civilians. Such attacks, he says, build support for the Taliban.

Two combat deaths on Sept. 11 make 2008 the deadliest year for American forces in the country.

Pvt. Michael Murdock, 22, of Chocowinity, N.C., is killed by enemy fire. He's remembered by his mother as "fun-loving, very sweet, caring, true to his friends." Chief Warrant Officer Michael Slebodnik, 39, is killed when his helicopter takes small-arms fire. He leaves a wife and six kids ranging in age from 3 to 18. After four tours of duty in Iraq, this was his first in Afghanistan.

Sept. 11, 2009: Quagmire

U.S. dead: 757

U.S. cost: $231 billion

U.S. troops: 68,000

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Obama's handpicked commander, says that although there's little sign of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the Taliban now has "the upper hand" and that he needs 40,000 more troops. But Ambassador Karl Eikenberry warns that more troops will merely deepen the Afghan regime's dependence.

The August election, which seems to have resulted in Karzai's re-election, was marred by fraud charges and contested results.

U.S. casualties are running twice as high as the previous year. August was the deadliest month yet, and another American is lost on Sept. 11: Army Pvt. Matt Martinek, born on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Day. "Clearly, he was meant to be a soldier," the priest will say later this month at his funeral in Illinois.

Troops mark the anniversary with a 9.11-kilometer memorial run. At 5:16 p.m., the exact time in Afghanistan when the first plane hit the Trade Center, an officer reads a minute-by-minute account of that day's events.

But the war's connection with 9/11 seems increasingly remote. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has observed a "war-weariness," and in an ABC News-Washington Post poll, more than half of Americans call the war not worth fighting. An AP-GfK survey finds that only 46% approve of Obama's handling of Afghanistan, a 9-percentage-point drop since July.

Meg Soper of Plain City, N.Y., says the president she voted for is failing to communicate about Afghanistan. Although she had relatives who escaped from the Trade Center and friends who've fought in Afghanistan, "I'm not sure why exactly we are over there."

Sept. 11, 2010: Surge

U.S. dead: 1,202

U.S. cost: $337 billion

U.S. troops: 100,000

For the first time in seven years, the U.S. has more troops in Afghanistan than in Iraq. Special operations forces have increased sixfold and airstrikes have more than tripled. Since July, hundreds of Taliban commanders and foot soldiers have been killed.

To reduce civilian casualties, the new U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, is putting an emphasis on "disciplined use of force" against insurgents.

In most cases, he requires commanders to determine that no civilians are present before approving a strike. Why? "The center of gravity in this struggle is the Afghan people; it is they who will ultimately determine the future of Afghanistan."

But in Kandahar province, the 101st Airborne is keeping its distance from the locals, even kids, after a series of grenade sneak-attacks. Suspicion is mutual. An Army report quotes a soldier saying, "When we go (to meet civilians) … no one wants anything to do with us."

Sept. 11, 2011: Decade

U.S.dead: 1,689

U.S. cost: $459 billion

U.S. troops: 85,000

With bin Laden killed four months before, Obama, who approved a troop surge less than two years ago, already has announced plans for troop withdrawals at year's end.

The previous month was the bloodiest of the war for Americans, with 70 deaths. Insurgents shot down a helicopter, killing all 38 people aboard, including 17 Navy SEALs.

Insurgents planted more improvised explosive devices in the first eight months of the year than at any time during the war. U.S. forces are getting better at finding them before they explode.

At a memorial ceremony at Bagram, about 500 military personnel gather around a steel beam from the wreckage at Ground Zero. The Taliban, in its 9/11 statement, accuses the U.S. of using the attacks as a pretext to invade, adding: "Afghans have an endless stamina for a long war. They will send the Americans to the dustbin of history, like they sent other empires of the past."

For the troops — many of whom were in grade school in 2001 — 9/11 seems increasingly remote.

"Some back home have asked why we are still here," Ambassador Ryan Crocker acknowledges at a memorial ceremony. "The reason is simple. Al-Qaeda is not here, and that is because we are."

Sept. 11, 2012: Drawdown

U.S. dead: 2,024

U.S. cost: $570 billion

U.S. troops: 68,000

Obama and Karzai have agreed to move up the transfer of combat operations to the Afghans from next summer to next spring. U.S. forces will focus on training and advising and will fight only when needed.

"If one could go back in time and ask Americans if they thought their military would still be waging war in Afghanistan 11 years later, nearly all would answer 'no,'" editorializes the Standard-Examiner of Ogden, Utah. "It needs to be wrapped up."

The war is not a big issue in the U.S. presidential campaign, and people seem less worried about terrorism. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta feels compelled to "remind the American people that there is a war going on."

Anniversary observances are muted in Afghanistan. Eight servicemembers re-enlist after a memorial ceremony.

A Center for Army Leadership study has found that one in four troops in Afghanistan rates morale either "low" or "very low," compared with the 15% of those based in the U.S. who say the same.

Afghanistan is at the bottom of Transparency International's Corruption Index. Three-quarters of its people are illiterate, and half of its agriculture is devoted to growing opium poppies. Foreign aid accounts for 40% of gross domestic product; with the U.S. exit looming, "for rent" signs appear around the capital. Barbers worry about the return of Taliban rule, and with it, compulsory beards.

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These anniversaries illustrate how the good war of 2001 became the long war of 2013. What impact will that journey have on Americans' feeling about their obligations in places and crises such as Syria? Mueller, the Ohio State professor, says public opinion is usually suspicious of what George Washington called "foreign entanglements." It was before Sept. 11, 2001, and is again.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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