One of the many problems with the perpetually reiterated cry to “end the forever wars” is that it only tells you what the United States should stop doing rather than what it should actually do to address the problems that caused the war in question in the first place. Exhibit A is Afghanistan, on which a growing chorus of voices has advised the Biden administration to withdraw all U.S. troops by May 1, the date envisioned in the agreement signed last February in Doha, Qatar, between the United States and the Taliban.
What about the fear that a Taliban-controlled government will make common cause with al Qaeda extremists, whom they reportedly continue to shelter? “It is hard to believe these reports,” writes Amitai Etzioni. What about the terrifying consequences to human rights, and above all women’s rights, of a Taliban-dominated government? “The past two decades have taught us … that fixing Afghan politics and society while keeping the Taliban out is beyond our considerable abilities,” notes William Ruger, an Afghanistan War veteran and vice president at the Charles Koch Institute. This is one subject that left and right can agree on.
