Afganistan

Order Description Over the past 35 years the US has gone back and forth from deep engagement in Afghanistan to disengagement. The Carter and Reagan administrations both enacted a massive covert operations program there from 1979-1989. Then, the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations disengaged from the isolated country (with minor military strikes conducted by the Clinton administration in 1998). After 9/11, the George W. Bush administration occupied Afghanistan, only to lose focus and engagement in the country once the US invaded Iraq in 2003. By 2006, with a resurgent Taliban and al-Qaeda, the US once again re-focused its efforts in Afghanistan and expanded the war into Pakistan. Finally, the Obama administration strengthened the US military commitment in Afghanistan with his own troop “surge,” and increased bombing campaign in Pakistan. In your paper compare and contrast each administrations policy towards Afghanistan: (1) what were the perceived interests at stake? (2) what goals did the administration hope to achieve with its use of military force or disengagement? (3) what happened? Did the military operations go according to plans? (4) what were the short-term consequences of the military action or disengagement and did they meet US interests? (5) After 35-years of an oscillating US approach to Afghanistan, do you see a long-term cohesive US strategy? And how successful has the US been at pursuing its interests viewed from a long-term perspective?