Why The Taliban Will Retake Afghanistan

Afghan staff react inside a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital after an air strike in the city of Kunduz, Afghanistan in this October 3, 2015 MSF handout photo. REUTERS/Medecins Sans Frontieres/Handout via Reuters

OP-FOR: Whither Afghanistan?

The ever-vigilant, thoughtful commentator and stalwart Op-For loyalist George W ’64 sent in two articles on Afghanistan for consideration. The first is here, “Why Afghanistan is going to fall…” This is one of the first paragraphs:

After covering the invasion of Afghanistan, former NPR journalist Sarah Chayes decided to stay in the country to try to help turn it around. She opened a business in Kandahar and probably spent more time living directly with the Afghan people — without security guards — than any other American since 2001. Chayes ultimately went to work for coalition forces in the region, sharing the fundamental insight she’d gained: Corruption was eroding public support of the government. She won audiences with all the right people, and even made some converts, but ultimately, her counsel wasn’t taken by the U.S. government as a whole.

(If she did that, then she did a brave and noble thing. However, I have every reason to believe that the lady who “spent more time living directly with the Afghan people — without security guards — than any other American since 2001″ is the remarkable Betsy Beamon. So say I. This is not to disparage Sarah Chayes’ accomplishments, but to highlight Betsy’s– and she was on the ground, working, into 2010. But I digress.)

WNU Editor: OP-FOR is correct .... and Ryan Grim's post at the Huffington Post is a must read .... Why Afghanistan Is Going To Fall To The Taliban Again. And It's Not Why You Think.