Afghanistan is America’s longest war

18 YEARS AND COUNTING

The millennium had just begun when the Afghanistan War — code named Operation Enduring Freedom — began on Oct. 7, 2001.

Last month marked the war’s 18th anniversary. In February, it earned the dubious distinction of being the longest war in American history, moving past the once-thought-interminable Vietnam War, in which American involvement lasted 17 years and four months until ending in April 1973.

To put the length of the Afghanistan conflict in perspective, it has lasted longer than World War I, World War II and the Korean War combined.

America sent troops to Afghanistan in response to the 9/ 11 attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Somerset County. The goal was to disrupt the use of the country as a terrorist base of operations and to attack the Taliban regime’s military capability.

The Iraq War — or Operation Iraqi Freedom — began in March 2003 and ended in December 2011. At eight years and nine months, it is the sixthlongest U.S. armed conflict.

U.S. forces invaded the country in 2003, seeking to destroy reported Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and to end Saddam Hussein’s dictatorial rule. No WMDs were discovered and a violent insurgency arose.

Less than 1% of America’s population has served as volunteer troops in these wars.

According to the most recent Department of Defense casualty statistics, 1,833 military personnel were killed in action, 385 died in non-hostile incidents and 20,091 were wounded in action in Afghanistan. In the Iraq War, 3,490 were killed in action, 942 died in non-hostile incidents and 31,994 were wounded in action.

U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan officially ended on Dec. 31, 2014, but 14,000 U.S. troops reportedly remain in the country. U.S. military forces in Afghanistan peaked at about 100,000 in 2010-2011.

In April 2018, the Military Times reported that the Pentagon would say only that there were approximately 5,200 forces in Iraq, the same number the military had given the prior year. The number of U.S. military forces in Iraq peaked at 170,300 in November 2007.

In late 2017, the Department of Defense stopped reporting the number of U.S. military personnel deployed in support of operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria as part of its quarterly reports and in other official releases. These data remain withheld.