George Will: Leave Afghanistan

I'd be reminded of Louis Armstrong's and Ella Fitzgerald's "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" if this weren't such an unsung occasion.

George Will on Sept. 1 became the first big-name American conservative to call for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, a war, he writes, "nearly 50 percent longer than the combined U.S. involvements in two world wars."

Will doesn't buy into the "crucial" nature of the recent and fraudulent elections. He doesn't buy the military's strategy of "clear, hold and build," that retread from Iraq where the U.S. military finally had to clear out before much of anything was built (including a viable political edifice), let alone held. And he certainly doesn't buy into the illusion that Hamid Karzai, the corrupt Afghan president, can be anything less than a venal enabler of brutal warlords and drug kingpins.

It's no longer Operation Enduring Freedom. To Will, it "should be called Operation Sisyphus." Increasing troops to 68,000 or more won't improve matters.

"So, instead," Will concludes, "forces should be substantially reduced to serve a comprehensively revised policy: America should do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent Special Forces units, concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, a nation that actually matters.

There's no doubt a twinge of partisanship in Will's "we're mired in stalemate" moment. The hint is in the title, "Time to Leave Afghanistan." My question is: when was it ever time to go to Afghanistan? Will's prescription of offshore and special forces interventions when necessary should have been the strategy all along. It was folly to invade in 2001. It has never been less than folly to occupy a country not even Afghans can tame for themselves.

See Also:

• Will: "Time to Leave Afghanistan"
• Grim Milestone in Afghanistan
• Why Afghanistan Is the Wrong War
• Afghanistan: The Deadliest Month
• "Good War" No More in Afghanistan
• The Taliban Resurgent in Afghanistan and Pakistan