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Top 3 lessons the US military has learned in Afghanistan war

As robust defense budget wranglings continue on Capitol Hill, much of the debate about one of the Pentagon's largest expenses – Afghanistan – centers around just how effective the decade-long fight has been. Here are the top three lessons that US military has learned in Afghanistan.

3. Pay attention to the neighbors

Khalid Tanveer/AP/File
Protesters in Multan, Pakistan, burn representations of US and NATO flags during a demonstration to condemn US drone strikes in the tribal areas, in this June 4, 2012, file photo.

  • By Anna Mulrine Staff writer

The US relationship with Pakistan, which shared a border with Afghanistan, has been an ongoing source of frustration for the US military. 

It was only in June that Pakistan reopened its border after closing it in November 2011, when American forces accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers during an airstrike. 

This was previously the crossing point for the vast majority of the Pentagon’s supplies for its troops in Afghanistan. Pakistani officials said they were waiting for the US to apologize for the deaths. 

That this apology was long in coming speaks to the resentment that some Pentagon officials harbor for what they see as Pakistan's failure to earnestly crack down on Taliban insurgents that continue to launch crossborder attacks on US troops.

Pakistani officials have resentments of their own – specifically, US drone strikes targeting Al Qaeda militants hiding out in Pakistan's tribal regions, which in some cases have also killed Pakistani civilians.

American lawmakers for their part see a great deal of US aid to Pakistan expended without much US strategic gain. Sen. Bob Corker (R) of Tennessee described US-Pakistan ties as a "pay-for-play" relationship as he inquired about US strategy during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. "Since it is more of a transactional relationship – not one that is built on goodwill – how do we leverage the resources that we have to cause Pakistan to act in ways that we would like to see them act?"

This is the ongoing question within the halls of the Pentagon, as well as on Capitol Hill. “What happens in the region ... as a whole will do more to determine the outcome in Afghanistan than any shift in [US] strategy,” Senator Kerry noted in the same hearing. “And Pakistan, in particular, remains central to that effort.”

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Mark Sappenfield
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