Colgate University’s chapter of the Alexander Hamilton Society led a panel discussion with national security consultant and public policy expert Daniel Fata on Thursday, April 17. The Alexander Hamilton Society (AHS) is a non-partisan, non-profit association for students interested in pursuing careers in foreign policy and national security. The AHS hosts events bringing scholars and professionals in those fields to campus to speak with students.
Fata is a national security consultant with 25 years of experience in Congress, with think tanks and in consulting. The focus of the discussion was the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Fata’s expertise comes from his position on the Afghan War Commission, established by Congress to create a comprehensive overview of the decisions, successes and mistakes made during the Afghan War. Its goal was to create a report that would allow for better future decision-making by the U.S. government and be accessible to the American public.
Fata began the discussion by asking the students in the audience a few questions.
“Do you believe that America should be promoting democracy overseas? How many of you would fight for your own democracy?” Fata asked.
Fata explained that over the years of his working with students, he has seen decreasing numbers of students who believe that the U.S. should be fighting for other countries’ democracies. He suggested that this is because students today have only seen America “lose” abroad. Fata’s interest lies in what the U.S. government can learn from the Afghanistan War as one of those losses. One point he made was about the failure of the government to prepare the American public for war.
“We didn’t mobilize the nation psychologically for war. It was done on the backs of just a few,” Fata said.
Fata pointed out that, after the 9/11 attacks, the vast majority of people were encouraged to go back to their regular lives in an effort to prevent the fear of terrorism from taking hold in our society. At the same time, troops were being sent into battle. Fata concluded that this psychological disconnect between the public and the conflict allowed it to become more drawn out. Additionally, soldiers who came back affected by war did not receive the understanding and resources they needed to recover and smoothly re-enter society.
“I think that leads to a lot of the ‘forever war’ mindset,” Fata said.
Fata also commented on the way that the global perspective on the U.S. changed after the withdrawal from Afghanistan. One major point he made was that American actions in Afghanistan removed some of Putin’s restraint in regard to his plans to invade Ukraine.
“The Afghan withdrawal piece was the final thing that he [Putin] needed to say, ‘America is disengaging. They are not going to challenge me. This should be a walk in the park,’” Fata said.
Senior Lily Karyo attended to support a friend who was leading the panel.
“I thought it was interesting because it’s a topic I hear a lot about in the news, and I haven’t done much research into it,” Karyo said. “It was great to hear from someone with so much expertise.”
Senior Natalie Chapman attended the lecture because she previously did not know much about the War in Afghanistan.
“I think hearing about his experiences, especially with the new administration, was something I was curious about,” Chapman said. “I am going to pay attention to the news more now that I have context for what is going on.”
