Afghanistan: how did they think it would end?

The really unpardonable mistake in Afghanistan was forgetting all the lessons Western armies had learned from a dozen lost guerilla wars in former colonies between 1954 and 1975.

Ashraf Ghani, the soon-to-be-ex-president of Afghanistan, said the U.S. troop withdrawal was too abrupt, but after 20 years of troops in the country and an April notice from the new U.S. president the military would be leaving, it was hardly a quick exit, writes Gwynne Dyer. Photograph courtesy of Commons Wikimedia

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

August 5, 2021

LONDON, U.K.—“I will never kneel before such a destructive force (as the Taliban),” declared Ashraf Ghani, the soon-to-be-ex-president of Afghanistan. “We will either sit knee-to-knee for real negotiations at the table, or break their knees on the battlefield.” Good luck with that, Ashraf....

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