Don’t Cut and Run From Afghanistan
The country isn’t a “lost cause,” and the U.S. would only create more problems for itself by hastily abandoning the Afghan people.
Afghan women know what true peace should look like.
Photographer: Hoshang Hashimi/AFP/Getty Images
Afghanistan’s future has never looked more uncertain — and, as so tediously often in the past, it is largely the fault of the U.S. In a hotel room in Moscow, representatives of the Taliban are meeting members of the Afghan opposition, in negotiations deliberately designed to exclude members of the government in Kabul led by President Ashraf Ghani. In the 38-member Afghan delegation are not just mercurial former president Hamid Karzai but also Mohammad Hanif Atmar, who will challenge Ghani for power in presidential elections in July.
U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who held talks of his own with the Taliban in Qatar recently, won’t be there; this is Russia’s show. But it was Khalilzad’s declaration that the U.S. and the Taliban had agreed “in principle on a couple of very important issues” that launched this latest round of politicking. It’s a chilling thought that some politicians in Kabul might, for the sake of power, be willing to cut a deal with the Taliban that they know is flawed.