August 22, 2017, New York – In response to Trump’s address on Afghanistan last night, the Center for Constitutional Rights issued the following statement:

Donald Trump’s remarks on Afghanistan promised little but more death and endless war. Lacking specificity about timeline and troop levels, it's perverse to respond to racism and national discord — that Trump helped to foment — by calling for the country to unite in order to attack others. His empty invocations of unity steeped in an appeal for unbridled loyalty and unquestioned patriotism are a clear offensive to movements for justice and an affront to all those who oppose unending war. We have seen this before.

Trump’s ramping up of military machinations in Afghanistan stands only to escalate the tragic destruction already wrought by the longest running war in U.S. history, with tens of thousands killed over the past 16 years. We must remember this is a war borne out of an earlier war to retaliate against an enemy who was created amid the debris of the Soviet-Afghan War, in part by fractured elements of fighters who had received U.S. backing to fight against Soviet forces. This plan will stoke the flames of unending conflict and continue a slide into unconstrained militarism.

The prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has been conducting a preliminary investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Afghanistan— under Trump we can only expect more of the same. Center for Constitutional Rights is urging the ICC to conduct a full investigation into the situation in Afghanistan. As we have done since the advent of the “war on terror” and for the past 51 years, the Center for Constitutional Rights will continue to challenge inhumane, unrestrained, and unlawful U.S. war-making in the courts and in the streets.