So it has come full circle. What started as an operation to eradicate al-Qaeda has ended two decades later with the return of its Afghan enablers to power. Rarely have so many lives and so much cash been spent on so little. It would be nice to think that US politics will learn from this debacle — and both parties are complicit. But the story is far from over. America may have quit this “forever war”, but it will go on. There will be little time for post-mortems as we come to grips with the implications of a rebooted Taliban.
America’s default tendency is to see the rest of the world in black and white. Such was the response to the 9/11 attacks on the US homeland 20 years ago. Either the world was with America or against it. Linked to that is the assumption that friends want to remake themselves in America’s image, while foes are beyond the pale. Such binary thinking is a profound strength when faced with a deep menace, such as fascism or communism. But most challenges are greyer than that. A Manichean world view seldom produces good foreign policy.
Afghanistan’s recent history has been an object lesson in how this instinct can lead America astray. After 9/11, each US party chose one country as their target of nation-building. Republicans picked Iraq. Democrats chose Afghanistan. The split was settled by domestic politics rather than conditions abroad. Democrats believed Afghanistan was a war of necessity since Osama bin Laden was based there and Republicans had rashly pivoted to Iraq. Republicans wanted to settle unfinished business with Saddam Hussein. Neither country was susceptible to being remade as a coherent nation at the barrel of a foreign gun. Such processes take longer than two decades and must be led from within.