Getting out of Afghanistan

A month after 9/11, the United States began a war against the Taliban government, which was harboring the attack’s perpetrators in Afghanistan. Back then, it was hard to imagine that 10 years later, the outlook would be as dim as it is today, or that this would be the longest armed conflict in U.S. history.

Osama bin Laden is dead and al-Qaida does not have the organizational power it used to have. However, the Taliban is still showing sufficient resistance that its potential return to power poses a serious threat.

Many mistakes have been made during this decade, which has been marked by a redirection of military resources to Iraq, the widespread corruption of President Hamid Karzai’s government and the political weakening of support for the allied forces from the Afhgani people because of the extent of civilian deaths cause by coalition bombings. Just days ago, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul itself came under fire for several hours. Also, last month, the Taliban murdered the Afghan government’s main peace negotiator.

Despite this lack of stability, people in our country no longer support this war. The announced U.S. troop withdrawal by 2014 is hopeful, although it seems unrealistic given the violent Afghan reality. Negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban are not progressing because of the latter’s extremism.

At the same time, in neighboring Pakistan, intelligence agencies are secretly backing the insurgents, since they view this conflict from the perspective of the rivalry with India. Peace is far from happening without talks among Afghans and cooperation from Pakistan.

The history of Afghanistan is filled with foreign invaders who after years of occupation withdrew in failure. We hope our country does not become part of this list, even though the prospects do not look good.