Af-gone-istan

Scott Hardie | August 17, 2021
Has your attitude towards the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan changed in the last few days, as the Taliban quickly took the country back over?

Steve West | August 17, 2021
This is reminiscent of why we abandoned the uncontrollable situation in Korea. The rapid Taliban takeover demonstrates how fruitless it is to eliminate their domestic terrorist presence and continued efforts will only cost more American lives.

Erik Bates | August 17, 2021
[hidden by request]

Samir Mehta | August 17, 2021
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | August 17, 2021
Good responses. Samir, I think you're right on.

The question that I asked is basically what I want to ask Joe Biden right now. I want a reporter to say, "Mr. President, knowing what you know now of what has transpired in the last few days, would you have done anything differently if you could do it all again?" Because I don't at all buy his assurances that everything went fine despite a "messy" exit; this was clearly a debacle. A month ago he said it was "highly unlikely" that the Taliban could take back the country once U.S. troops left; then they took it over in about 3 days. Joe, just admit that the experts' predictions were way off and this did not go according to plan; it's better than pretending otherwise.

I keep hearing the last twenty years described as "America's longest war," which neatly avoids that the Korean War never technically ended. We continue operating a peacekeeping presence in South Korea to this day, because it would lead to more violence and human suffering and political instability if we pulled out. We still have troops in Germany and Japan from even longer ago for similar reasons. We could have stayed indefinitely in Afghanistan. The only thing different this time is the lack of will to continue.

Perhaps calling it a "war" has been the problem, because that implies a temporary state of affairs. The active conflict ended years ago. It really became an ongoing peacekeeping effort, one that could have gone on indefinitely. Without our presence there, tens of millions of Afghanistan girls could lose their education and essentially become property again, and the risk of murder and assassination runs high for anyone who dares to speak against the Taliban, and the state will very likely again become a haven for terrorism and religious extremism with potential far-reaching consequences. No, America shouldn't have to prop up this state, but isn't the net good worth it?

And I don't mind acknowledging that I was wrong about all of this. I wanted us to stop being the world's peacekeeper, risking American lives and wasting American dollars on ungrateful nations halfway around the world. I wanted us to leave. Now that I see the consequences, I realize that I was wrong. If you thought the cost of staying was too high, consider the cost of not staying.