{"id":85004,"date":"2021-03-18T17:00:23","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T17:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=1135b71cab5e46e9c36f9e52a8cc970b"},"modified":"2021-03-18T17:00:23","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T17:00:23","slug":"biden-should-stop-making-excuses-its-time-to-leave-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/03\/18\/biden-should-stop-making-excuses-its-time-to-leave-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Should Stop Making Excuses \u2014 It\u2019s Time to Leave Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Afghan<\/a>

War in Afghanistan. In my mind, after all these years, those two words sound like a rock dropped into a bottomless well.<\/p>\n

Forty years ago, the whimsy of Cold Warriors<\/a> motivated the United States to turn its imperial gaze upon that long-battered country. The subsequent actions and decisions<\/a> — from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan to the first George Bush — led directly to the attacks of September 11 and the U.S. invasion of that nation. Twenty years later, the U.S. military remains in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

In Afghanistan, generations have seen foreign armies invade, retreat, invade again, yet never ultimately prevail. The Persians, the Greeks, the Mongols and Murghals, the British, the Soviets, and finally the United States \u2026 all have come, and all have gone, except for us, lo these 20 long years.<\/p>\n

What began — this time — with George W. Bush has passed through the hands of Barack Obama and Donald Trump to land on the desk of Joe Biden. The specific circumstances of the moment may differ, but the decision before Biden is age-old: Leave in defeat, or remain and be defeated. What do you get when you sift through ashes? You get ashes.<\/p>\n

The Afghanistan situation at present serves to highlight one of the most galling elements of the now-departed Trump era. Trump campaigned on the idea that he would not repeat U.S. failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, that he would bring the troops home, and would not start any new wars unless provoked. These were hopeful notes — for those who believed him. That folly was not long-lived, except among those who accept something as true only if Trump says it is.<\/p>\n

Trump did not start any wholly new wars, but the rest of these promises were, of course, flat-out broken. He didn\u2019t bring the troops home, but merely moved them like breathing chess pieces to various points on the map, deranging a number of long-standing alliances<\/a> in the process.<\/p>\n

Aside from Syria and the Kurds, nowhere was this wrongheaded approach to policy more vividly apparent than Afghanistan. The Trump administration negotiated a May 1 withdrawal date with the Taliban, on the promise that the Taliban would end attacks on U.S. forces and cut ties with al Qaeda. According to observers, the Taliban has failed to live up to those terms<\/a>.<\/p>\n