Donald Trump’s election victory in November brought him praise and congratulations from leaders and governments around the world. One of the more surprising messages appeared in a post on X from the Taliban in Afghanistan. The country’s foreign ministry expressed hope that the president-elect’s impending return to the White House would allow “both nations to open a new chapter of relations based on mutual engagement.”

The group’s overture reaffirmed the resounding futility of the longest war in America’s history. For 20 years – from a month after the 9/11 attacks until summer 2021 – the US military fought and failed to vanquish the Taliban. More than 2,400 troops lost their lives in Afghanistan, along with almost 4,500 killed in Iraq. The men and women who survived the “forever wars” carried home the fraught question of whether their fallen comrades died in vain. Trump has tapped three of them for high-level positions in his incoming administration. Vice President-elect JD Vance and Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, deployed to Iraq. His pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. The trio’s stated aversion to US intervention abroad, including in Ukraine, traces back to their misgivings about the forever wars.

Two years before winning election to the Senate in........

© The Frontier Post (Editorial)