The Commanding Officer of an Iowa National Guard Defines Success in the War in Afghanista

Colonel Ben Corell, the commanding officer of an Iowa National Guard and Reserve unit returning from Afghanistan reflects on the experiences of the deployment and the definition of success in wartime.

Of the 2,800 Iowa soldiers who served in Afghanistan under Colonel Corell, 175 were seriously injured and four were killed.  And after returning to Camp Dodge in Johnston, the commanding officer reflected on the deployment.

Colonel Ben Corell: “Sure, we had success but I think it goes back to ‘what does that success look like? What is the end game? When does the green light come on for us to say, we’ve met success and we’re going to move out?’  Otherwise we continue to dump resources into this of blood and treasure with I’m not sure what the outcome is. I guess that is for a higher power to decide of when that success is fully done we can actually back out of there. I think we’ve gotta determine as a people and a nation what that is. And I’m not sure we’ve defined that clearly yet.”