Clausewitz famously said that war was politics by other means, which is to say, war must have realistic, achievable political ends.
Can anyone tell me what those realistic ends are in Afghanistan?
The "foreign policy blob" remains committed to a policy that exists because it exists, rather then because it makes any sense or is in any way achievable. There is no way, after 19 years, that somehow there is an exit from Afghanistan that leaves it at peace with a reasonable government in charge. The Taliban are going to win, just as the Viet Cong were going to win. There is no additional window of time that will reverse this outcome.
There is, instead, the risk averse practice of making sure that you don't advocate for a policy that will lead to Al Qaeda (remember them?) somehow makes a comeback in the mountains of Afghanistan...where they must already be, if we're worried about that. How do a few thousand American troops in Kabul somehow keep Al Qaeda at bay?
What will happen when the Taliban takes over will like be very bad. There's no getting around that. But this outcome is now inevitable, and no amount of time will reverse that.
We lost that war. Time to admit it and move on.
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