In October, it will be 20 years since the US invaded Afghanistan to eliminate the shrines of Al Qaeda and their Taliban sponsors, and Americans are understandably eager to move on. But the difficulties associated with America’s current commitment are nothing compared to the chaos that would follow an abrupt departure.
In February 2020, the Trump administration and the Taliban signed a withdrawal agreement requiring all US troops to leave by May 1, 2021. The move was driven by Donald Trump’s domestic political instincts – not a strategic calculation. President Biden wisely reconsiders that decision.
“I am very happy with what the Biden administration is proposing for Afghanistan,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, said on Sunday. “They are re-evaluating our presence in Afghanistan to keep the footprint low, but not to walk away and lose all the achievements we have achieved.” The White House has not announced a final decision, but Mr Graham expects the US to stay after May.
Many Democrats and isolationist-leaning Republicans are drawing attention to their calls for an immediate end to “eternal wars”. But Mr Graham’s comments remind us that there is also broad support for a more careful approach. The question is not whether the US will leave Afghanistan, but whether it will do so responsibly.
The bipartisan Afghanistan Study Group has provided compelling arguments for how to do this in its report to Congress this month. The group – former generals, senators, ambassadors and national security officials – proposes replacing Mr Trump’s timeline with a conditions-based approach. “A pullout would not only make America more vulnerable to terrorist threats,” the report says, “it would also have catastrophic consequences in Afghanistan and the region that are not in the interests of any of the main actors, including the Taliban.”