Afghan Withdrawal Enhances Long‐​Term US Credibility

Afghanistan ended tragically, but that was inevitable once Washington shifted from responding to 9/11 to imposing a Western‐​style government.This article appeared in Anti​war​.com on September 20, 2021.The failure of America’s expensive Potemkin regime in Afghanistan triggered predictable wailing and caterwauling by members of Washington’s War Party. In their view the U.S. can never leave any conflict anywhere at any time lest no one ever again believe that America will defend even itself in the future. Abandon Kabul today and the Russians might be invading New York City tomorrow!It is a profoundly stupid argument. Indeed, proponents, a toxic mix of neoconservatives, liberal interventionists, and endless hawks who dominate US foreign policy, almost certainly don’t believe their own claims. Rather, they are seeking to raise the price for any administration to leave any forever war. The more bile and venom they spew, the less likely President Joe Biden and his successors will be to pull US forces from Iraq, Syria, or some other foolish conflict.For equally self‐​serving reasons the foreign beneficiaries of American intervention offer similar inanities. In varying degrees officials in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East — representing more than a score members of Washington’s vast defense dole — asked if they can continue to rely on the US Seemingly intelligent people, they nevertheless pretend not to recognize the difference between Germany or Japan and Afghanistan.Afghanistan ended tragically, but that was inevitable once Washington shifted from responding to 9/11 to imposing a Western‐​style government.However, they hope to manipulate an administration under siege, wringing even more subsidies, concessions, and promises from credulous officials ever willing to sacrifice the American public’s interest. There is no foreign cause too unimportant for Washington to promiscuously sacrifice US lives and wealth. America’s nominal allies will employ any excuse to keep the benefits flowing: even Afghanistan will do.The US withdrawal from Afghanistan was long overdue. Central Asia is about as far from America as any place on earth and of largely theoretical geopolitical interest. An American presence in Afghanistan would be utterly indefensible in a great power conflict, surrounded by several global and regional powers: China, Russia, India, Iran, and Pakistan.Who ruled Kabul has mattered to the US for only a few brief moments. After the 1979 Soviet invasion the US treated Afghanistan as a means to wound America’s Cold War antagonist. There was no interest in the welfare of the Afghan people. Complaints that Washington did not stick around after Moscow withdrew a decade later were senseless: the US cared not at all about “stability” then and the victorious Mujahedeen would have treated any interference by Washington the same way they treated Soviet intervention.Afghanistan also was important in 2001 after 9/11. The US sought to destroy or incapacitate al‐​Qaeda for conducting the attack and the Taliban for hosting al‐​Qaeda. As the location of both, Afghanistan became the locus of US military action. However, Afghanistan offered no special advantage for the conduct of terrorism: 9/11 was planned, manned, funded, and conducted elsewhere. Within two months the George W. Bush administration had wrecked al‐​Qaeda and ousted the Taliban, with the latter willing to negotiate an end to the conflict.The US could have withdrawn its forces, leaving Afghanistan’s future to be determined by its own people. Although Washington thoughtlessly fueled the rise of Islamic extremism and violent jihadism while targeting the Soviet Union, the threat would have remained far different than what developed after invading Iraq and turning both conflicts into endless wars.