Polemic®

I’m not exactly sure why people think the unsurprising fact that Pakistani elements are supporting the Taliban (whom the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, created and supported in the first place) argues in favor of a withdrawal from the region.

It should be clear now that rebuilding Afghanistan into some kind of western democracy can’t happen given hhe political realities of the NATO coalition members’ domestic politics. We just cannot do the heavy lifting. Given that, we should stop trying. I do think, however, that it would be a large mistake to withdraw from the region.

The only cold war in any significant danger of going nuclear hot at the moment is the Indo-Pakistan conflict. And remember, Afghanistan is where the terrorists who actually attacked us were based. Our interests require a presence. They do not require a continued “state building” mission.