By Oliver North
In 2003, when our FOX News team first met him, he was a colonel, commanding Marine Regimental Combat Team 5 in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Ever since, he’s been known as “Fighting Joe” to those who served with him and witnessed his courage and front-line leadership under fire. Today, he has four stars and what many consider to be the most thankless job in the U.S. Armed Forces.
General Joe Dunford now commands the International Security Assistance Force – ISAF. He leads all U.S., NATO and coalition troops in Afghanistan – 48 nations – and acknowledges the task is “complicated.” What the man who doesn’t do is complain about how little time he has to complete his mission before the 2014 deadline set by his superiors in Washington.
When we visited with him last month in Kabul, I asked for his definition of “victory” – a word rarely heard in our nation’s capital. His response was straightforward: “We’ll win when the Afghan security forces are capable of providing security here in Afghanistan… and ensure that never again can Afghanistan be used as a sanctuary for enemy terrorism.”
Though Western media rarely acknowledge progress in what is now a 12-year-long war – Dunford points to the widely ignored announcement on June 18, that “after ten years of the coalition leading combat operations here in Afghanistan, we’re now in a supporting effort…”
That word – “supporting” – is key. In dozens of embeds since we were attacked in 2001, our FOX News cameras have shown that American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Guardsmen and Marines can win any fight. Now the question is whether our countrymen will support completing the mission.
As we traveled around the country on this visit, we saw increasing evidence that Afghanistan’s fledgling army and police are vastly improved – and taking the fight to the enemy. That’s crucial to those who have served in this long war. Every Gold Star family and the loved ones of those who have been wounded want to know, “Was our sacrifice worth it?” If Joe Dunford has his way, the answer is “yes.”
