Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Is It Too Late For Afghanistan?



Ahmed Rashid, New York Review Of Books: Afghanistan: It’s Too Late

When Donald Trump’s secretary of defense, James Mattis, was called before the Senate Armed Services Committee this week to testify about the conflict in Afghanistan, he was unusually blunt: “We are not winning in Afghanistan right now,” he said. The Taliban have been on a dramatic offensive, he acknowledged, the security situation continues to deteriorate, and the Afghan government holds considerably less territory than it did a year ago. In other words, prospects for any sort of positive outcome are as remote as they have been in this sixteen-year war—the longest war in American history.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: I think there is now a slow realisation that the war in Afghanistan is a conflict that has all the ingredients to go on for decades ... and if this is your perspective then yes .... it is too late to save the country. And while it is very appealing to just pick up and leave the Afghans to fight amongst themselves .... to do so would only create a vacuum for groups like Al Qaeda/ISIS/etc. to just step in and lay the same groundwork that got us involved in this country in the first place 16 years ago. My prediction .... the U.S. and its allies are going to step and continue the war, and I expect it to become even more brutal than what it has been for the past few years. But this involvement will be with the following perspective .... no hope for peace or even laying the groundwork for peace .... just a slow grind where almost all of the casualties will be amongst the Afghans themselves who just do not have it inside of them to say to each other enough is enough.

No comments: