Mattis reflects on Afghanistan
The former defense secretary defends U.S. efforts to rebuild Afghanistan as part of the 18-year-old war.
WASHINGTON — Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis defended American efforts to rebuild Afghanistan as part of the 18-year-old U.S. war there, saying Friday that “we had to try to do something in nation-building, as much as some people condemn it, and we probably weren’t that good at it.”
Mattis described the progress that has been made in Afghanistan since the U.S. military invaded after the September 2001 terrorist attacks. Speaking to journalists at The Washington Post, he cited an increase in the number of Afghan women who are educated, the development of Afghan diplomats and the inoculation of civilians against disease.
Mattis, who oversaw the war as the four-star commander of U.S. Central Command from 2010 to 2013, said that violence in Afghanistan is “so heartbreaking that it can blind you to the progress,” and he acknowledged that the United States made a strategic mistake by not paying enough attention to the country as the administration of George W. Bush launched the war in Iraq in 2003.
“That we didn’t do things right, I mean, I’m an example of it,” Mattis said, recalling that as a one-star general, he was pulled out of Afghanistan in the spring of 2002, promoted and told to prepare for war in Iraq.
“I was dumbfounded,” he said. “But we took our eye off of there.”
The comments came in response to questions about investigative reporting by The Washington Post that outlines mistakes made in the war. The series, called “The Afghanistan Papers,” includes previously unpublished interviews and memos in which senior officials privately expressed misgivings about the campaign, even as they publicly touted its progress.
As a general, Mattis was among those who frequently spoke about the progress he saw.
In 2010, Mattis testified before Congress that the military component of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan was sound, and that by “steadfastly executing our strategy we will win in Afghanistan.”
In March 2013, he testified that it was “obviously a combination of progress and violence” on the ground, but that the Afghan forces were “proving themselves capable.”
“I think we may have to look at how we’re measuring them since they’re measuring themselves against the enemy, and they’re proving themselves there,” Mattis said.
By 2015, the United States was dispatching its own Special Operations troops to stave off security disasters in the south and had stopped a planned withdrawal as scores of Afghan soldiers were killed each month.
Mattis said reports in The Post have prompted the families of fallen service members and some veterans to reach out.
“You can imagine what it’s like for the families, and I have heard from them,” he said.
Mattis said he assured them that U.S. officials, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Ryan Crocker, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, “were not papering over any of this.”
“That it was hard; harder than hell, and that it was understood by all of us,” he said.