Opinion | Stephen Kinzer: Farewell, Afghanistan - The Boston Globe
By Stephen Kinzer February 20, 2019
6-7 minutes
LIKE A DISTANT light at the end of an excruciatingly long tunnel, the prospect of American withdrawal from Afghanistan now seems to glimmer ahead. Several rounds of negotiation in Russia, Qatar, and elsewhere have produced the outlines of an agreement. Details are unknown, but by all accounts, the accord will be based around a simple deal: the United States pulls its troops out and the Taliban pledges to never again host terror groups.
This would be a most un-American peace deal. Rather than a declaration of victory, it would be a reluctant acceptance of stubborn facts on the ground. Afghans repelled British invaders in the 19th century and Soviet invaders in the 20th. For nearly two decades they have held the United States at bay. By leaving Afghanistan to its fate, we would be admitting failure. This horrifies many in Washington. Americans fervently embrace the illusion that their country can succeed at anything — including crushing mountain fighters thousands of miles away who believe they are patriots resisting a foreigner invader.
This month, 70 members of the US Senate voted to reprimand President Trump for daring to consider “precipitous withdrawal†from Afghanistan — as if leaving after 18 years could be considered precipitous. Retired generals and other doom-mongers have warned that the only way to secure our homeland is to occupy Afghanistan forever — “to protect our values for as long as it takes,†in the words of Ryan Crocker, a former US ambassador to Afghanistan. That would mean indefinitely extending a project that has no prospect of success and costs a staggering $45 billion per year. Ambassador Crocker asserts that withdrawal would “effectively be a surrender, and we’re just negotiating the terms.†He’s right. It might delicately be called “negotiated capitulation.†By whatever name, it requires facing unpleasant reality.
Read more at: https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2019/02/20/kinzer/mw5C4hp9KK8jZePQ6SlMNL/story.html
For the record, the author:
Stephen Kinzer is a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.
I think the author often comes off as a lefty, as a rule... but still, might have something worth hearing from time to time.
