Afghanistan: keeping the elephants away

The final ignominious departure of Western military forces does not signify an increased risk of international terrorist attacks from Afghanistan.

Evacuees wait to board a C-17 Globemaster III during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Aug. 30. The notion, repeatedly applied to the Taliban, that terrorists must have ‘bases’ belongs to the James Bond universe. Its constant use in reference to the Afghanistan invasion is an essential device for those who are still trying to justify that misbegotten adventure, but it was never true, not even in 2001, writes Gwynne Dyer.Photograph courtesy of U.S. Department of Defense

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

September 2, 2021

LONDON, U.K.—A man is sitting in a train somewhere in Europe, tearing sheets of paper into little pieces and throwing them out the window. (It could have been in America too, but passenger trains are pretty scarce there.)

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