Those who think the conflict in Iraq has taken a long time to sort out shouldn’t hold their breath for a resolution in Afghanistan, according to veterans with experience both war zones.
“I think (Iraq’s) military, their core is a little bit stronger than Afghanistan’s. I think that’s why it’s calmed down so much there,” said Air Force Staff Sgt. Nick Bradley of Scottsboro, Ala., who served in Iraq in 2005 and Afghanistan last year.
Operation Enduring Freedom, which began two years before Operation Iraqi Freedom, will “absolutely” last much longer, Staff Sgt. Bradley predicted.
Sgt. 1st Class Ken Duncan, who serves in the Tennessee National Guard and lives in Ft. Oglethorpe, Ga., agrees that Afghanistan is behind Iraq in wealth, education, infrastructure and government.
“The poverty is so much greater in Afghanistan than you would see in Iraq,” said Sgt. 1st Class Duncan, reflecting on his 2005-2006 deployment to Afghanistan and his 2007-2008 deployment to Iraq.
Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, reflected on this disparity in a recent talk at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Echoing the Tennessee Valley veterans’ sentiments, he predicted some “tough months ahead” as U.S. forces shift focus to Afghanistan.
Afghanistan lacks Iraq’s huge oil revenues and its “muscle memory” of strong central government institutions, Gen. Petraeus said. The conflict there will be “very difficult, and you won’t see the dramatic turnaround that we have seen in Iraq,” he concluded.
Because of cultural differences in the two countries, the U.S. can’t move into communities in Afghanistan the same way it had in Iraq, according to the general, who says a different counterinsurgency is being developed for Operation Enduring Freedom.
“You don’t move into a village in Afghanistan the way that we were able to move into neighborhoods in Iraq,” Gen. Petraeus said. “You have to move on the edge of it, or just near it, but you still have to have a persistent security presence.”
Still, attacks from insurgents in both countries are similar, said Staff Sgt. Bradley and Sgt. 1st Class Duncan, who both recalled receiving similar briefings for the different war zones.
“The mentality for me, it’s the same for both places,” Staff Sgt. Bradley said, explaining that the only difference might be that because Afghans are so poor, they are more easily swayed by insurgents who can offer them money to support their families.
“But it’s war,” he said. “It’s combat. They’re both using homemade bombs. They’re very, very similar in their tactics.”
Luckily, Gen. Petraeus noted, the troops do seem to enjoy one benefit in Afghanistan that they didn’t always get in Iraq: support and understanding from the general public at home.
“There is absolutely no debate about the fact that this is where the 9/11 attacks came from,” he said.
