Leaving Afghanistan

Many concerned observers instinctively oppose withdrawing US/Nato troops from Afghanistan in the belief that a bloodbath must follow, a resumption of the post 1989 warlord frenzies after the Soviet forces left and the US lost interest.

Dishing out expensive Stingers was one thing, dispensing rebuilding funds was quite another. But in America wasting billions on weapons traditionally is a leniently treated affair while even thinking of channelling large sums towards benefits for average people — such as a national healthcare system — meets fierce resistance from elites and the populist right.

For Afghanistan a reconstruction splurge was never in the offing. Whatever humanitarian aid reached the shattered country after 1989 became ripe pickings for ‘tolls’ and bribes. A cut-throat struggle raged for several years after Najibullah’s overthrow which only the Taliban stemmed by imposing its repulsively medieval form of law and order.

Still, it is possible that a genuine reconstruction effort might have averted the brutal blooming of the Taliban, who foolishly played host to Osama bin Laden. Najibullah had offered Pakistan and the US a neutral arrangement but both ignored him.