U.S. Military Operations in Afghanistan: Sun Tzu’s View on Opportunities and Challenges

摘要

During the Afghanistan Wars, U.S. launched several military operations with coalition powers between 2001 and 2012 which illustrated effective superior military strategies and resources. Nevertheless, U.S. has its share of military deterioration parallel with its success stories. The total victory which is expected by U.S. is illusive due to high level resistance and casualties despite its decision for withdrawal from the “Graveyard of Empires”. By putting Sun Tzu’s Art of War as the center of gravity, the objectives of this paper are to analyze the U.S. military strategies conducted in Afghanistan as well as to examine the prevailing opportunities and challenges. This paper is prepared based on qualitative research method that embraces primary and secondary data collections. After a comprehensive study, comparisons are made in line with the principles of Sun Tzu has revealed the potential opportunities and challenges that are exhibited in the U.S. military operations deployed in Afghanistan. The study shows the challenges emerged with U.S.’ ignorance of human and financial factors, geo-political elements, underestimate its enemies, heavy reliance on coalition forces, conflict of interests and insufficient human intelligence. On the other hand, the opportunities arose when the U.S. military developed diplomatic relations with its alliances as well as enhanced military operations in Afghanistan’s difficult topography. In a nutshell, Sun Tzu emphasizes the vital importance of war to a nation and human capacity because it determines the destiny of state. Therefore, the matter of war indeed deserves an extensive study.