On Afghanistan and American Disinterest

I’m trying to avoid politics on this site as much as possible, but I can’t not mention President Trump’s address last night. He announced a new strategy for the U.S.’s war in Afghanistan that includes sending an additional 4,000 troops to the country. We have been at war in Afghanistan for nearly 16 years, and it’s not clear what we’re doing there at this point. The politics of the issue aside, what is appalling about this state of perpetual war is that no one cares. Afghanistan never came up in any of the presidential debates in 2016, and pollsters didn’t even bother to include it on the list of issues Americans may care about. For years now I have heard people fearfully discuss the prospect of the U.S. going to war as if one was not already underway.