{"id":5942,"date":"2021-08-29T14:12:50","date_gmt":"2021-08-29T14:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5942"},"modified":"2021-08-29T14:12:50","modified_gmt":"2021-08-29T14:12:50","slug":"withdrawing-from-afghanistan-is-still-the-right-thing-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5942","title":{"rendered":"Withdrawing From Afghanistan Is Still the Right Thing To Do"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“In 20 years of conflict, the U.S. has accomplished its initial security goals. The 2001-era Taliban was ousted, and since 9\/11, no terrorist attack on U.S. soil has been carried out by an organization rooted in Afghanistan. Security concerns now lie elsewhere. “The Biden administration correctly assessed that the threat of terrorism from Afghanistan today is in fact\u00a0smaller than from various parts of Africa and the Middle East<\/a>,” as Vanda Felbab-Brown\u00a0writes<\/a>\u00a0for the Brookings Institution. Al Qaeda’s capacities are\u00a0limited<\/a>. To say that Afghanistan hosts the same level of outward threat that it once did is patently false.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Internal threats\u00a0do\u00a0<\/em>exist, largely in the form of a Taliban emboldened by the U.S. departure. Taliban fighters say they’ve gained control of\u00a085 percent<\/a>\u00a0of Afghanistan\u2014a claim the Afghan government has dismissed as propaganda. It’s impossible to correctly assess current\u00a0territory holdings<\/a>, but Taliban\u00a0attacks<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0seizures<\/a>\u00a0have increased recently. As a result, U.S. intelligence officials have\u00a0concluded<\/a>\u00a0that the Afghan government could fall just six months after the Americans take their leave. Two former secretaries of state, Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, both worry about the implications of a full withdrawal; Rice even suggested the U.S. may need to return,\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Axios<\/em>.”
…
“It’s extremely unlikely that a 21st year of conflict would be decisive after the first 20 haven’t been.\u00a0We know the nature of the conflict and what continued warfare would involve\u2014more dead soldiers, more dead civilians, and an increasingly futile commitment to nation building that will, in all likelihood, result in a less stable country.”
…
“Leaving without a clear picture of what Afghanistan’s government will look like in just a few months is an unsatisfying conclusion to America’s longest war. That doesn’t mean the U.S. should put off its withdrawal, or that it should already be gearing up to send troops back. While there may be an effective American role to be had in facilitating future peace talks between Afghanistan’s warring parties, American participation in the conflict must end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicians are wrong to treat the Afghanistan withdrawal as Biden’s fatal blow. It’s a sign of humility\u2014recognizing where the U.S. has failed and where it cannot possibly succeed. It’s quite easy for presidents to start wars. It’s another thing entirely to end them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/reason.com\/2021\/07\/14\/withdrawing-from-afghanistan-is-still-the-right-thing-to-do\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“In 20 years of conflict, the U.S. has accomplished its initial security goals. The 2001-era Taliban was ousted, and since 9\/11, no terrorist attack on U.S. soil has been carried out by an organization rooted in Afghanistan. Security concerns now lie elsewhere. “The Biden administration correctly assessed that the threat of terrorism from Afghanistan today is in fact smaller than from various parts of Africa and the Middle East,” as Vanda Felbab-Brown writes for the Brookings Institution. Al Qaeda’s capacities are limited. To say that Afghanistan hosts the same level of outward threat that it once did is patently false.<\/p>\n

Internal threats do exist, largely in the form of a Taliban emboldened by the U.S. departure. Taliban fighters say they’ve gained control of 85 percent of Afghanistan\u2014a claim the Afghan government has dismissed as propaganda. It’s impossible to correctly assess current territory holdings, but Taliban attacks and seizures have increased recently. As a result, U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that the Afghan government could fall just six months after the Americans take their leave. Two former secretaries of state, Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, both worry about the implications of a full withdrawal; Rice even suggested the U.S. may need to return, according to Axios.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“It’s extremely unlikely that a 21st year of conflict would be decisive after the first 20 haven’t been. We know the nature of the conflict and what continued warfare would involve\u2014more dead soldiers, more dead civilians, and an increasingly futile commitment to nation building that will, in all likelihood, result in a less stable country.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Leaving without a clear picture of what Afghanistan’s government will look like in just a few months is an unsatisfying conclusion to America’s longest war. That doesn’t mean the U.S. should put off its withdrawal, or that it should already be gearing up to send troops back. While there may be an effective American role to be had in facilitating future peace talks between Afghanistan’s warring parties, American participation in the conflict must end.
\nPoliticians are wrong to treat the Afghanistan withdrawal as Biden’s fatal blow. It’s a sign of humility\u2014recognizing where the U.S. has failed and where it cannot possibly succeed. It’s quite easy for presidents to start wars. It’s another thing entirely to end them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[435,552,272,355,314,780,108,619,158],"class_list":["post-5942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-afghanistan","tag-conflict","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-foreign-policy","tag-international-relations","tag-joe-biden","tag-terrorism","tag-united-states","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5942"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5943,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5942\/revisions\/5943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}