Understanding Where we are in Afghanistan

The following from Foreign Policy is worth a read: There Is No War in Afghanistan.

Ever since the Taliban government was toppled in late 2001, the heart of the strategic problem that has confronted the United States and its allies in Afghanistan has been the definition of victory: How does this end? We would all be better off if we first asked what “this” is. While Afghanistan is a war of sorts, it is not the sort of war in which there is likely to be a decisive moment of victory. Rather, Afghanistan is best described as an armed policing operation.

The whole piece is worth a read.

FILED UNDER: Afghanistan War, US Politics, World Politics, ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. michael reynolds says:

    Depressing, unsurprising, and with the ring of truth… until you get to the end, which seems to be a hope that the deeply corrupt Kabul government and the 11th century fanatics of the Taliban are going to have a kumbaya moment if we just keep kicking the can down the road year after year. I see no reason to think this is at all likely. Far more likely is that a few bad developments convince members of the Kabul government to start cashing out and moving to the homes they’ve cleverly bought in fashionable London neighborhoods, leading to a collapse in Kabul followed by a Taliban takeover.