Time International - 16.03.2020

18 Time March 16–23, 2020

As I stumbled out of the burning build-
ing onto the grassy field below, the irony of
the moment struck me: here I was, in the saf-
est building on earth, guarded by the stron-
gest military in history, in the capital of the
richest country in the world. If the Pentagon
wasn’t safe, what was?
We all knew everything would change,
especially for those of us in the U.S. military.
I was wrenched out of my comfortable assign-
ment as a strategic budget officer and selected
to lead “Deep Blue,” a hastily created think
tank charged with charting a new course for
the Navy in what would become known as the
war on terror. We didn’t really know what that
meant, nor did we appreciate all that would
unfold in so many places around the world,
and how many would die as a result of our re-
taliation. But we did know that the plot that
killed 3,000 Americans had begun in Afghan-
istan, and very
quickly the focus
of the U.S. mili-
tary became going
there, finding
al-Qaeda and de-
stroying them. The
Taliban—who had
harbored them—
were at the time a
small obstacle that
we quickly over-
came. As tens of
thousands of U.S.
troops deployed
to a strange, fore-
boding nation whose geography seemed to
resemble the surface of the moon, we could
never have predicted we were embarking on
the longest war in U.S. history.
Over nearly two decades, hundreds of
thousands of U.S. troops rotated through Af-
ghanistan, generally on one-year assignments.
At the conflict’s peak in 2013, over 150,
U.S. and allied troops from over 50 nations
were deployed there. Many became casualties,
including nearly 2,500 killed and over 20,
wounded. During my four years commanding
the NATO mission Enduring Freedom there,
I wrote 1,700 letters of condolence to griev-
ing families, about a third of them Europeans.
It was a hard time for the U.S. military, which
was caught in a classic counterinsurgency bat-
tle against an implacable and determined foe.
Progress was hard to define, and the frequent
changes of command at every level in the
country hampered our efforts. We suffered
from Taliban safe havens across the border

in Pakistan, difficult supply chains and a ten-

dency to emphasize positive developments

while understating the challenges.

Despite the frustration and the casu-

alties, we were able in time to turn the fight

over to the marginally capable Afghan secu-

rity forces and to withdraw the vast majority

of our troops. We have brought home 90% of

our troops, with only 13,000 or so still there.

Hopefully the peace agreement will be suc-

cessfully concluded and will hold thanks to

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad’s tireless ef-

forts. The tenuous next steps will be nego-

tiations between the Afghan government of

Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban. The objective

from the U.S. perspective will be to bring

home more of our troops, although ideally we

would retain a cadre of around 5,000 Special

Forces and trainers to help preserve the gains

in democracy,

human rights and

gender equality

that have been so

painfully achieved.

We’ve seen

this movie before,

of course—in

Vietnam. There

it ended terribly,

with all our forces

withdrawn,

funding cut to the

Vietnamese army

and helicopters

lifting off the

rooftop of the U.S. embassy in Saigon. Many

of our local allies of decades were tortured

and killed in “re-education” camps. It doesn’t

have to end that way again, but success will

require a modicum of funding for the Afghan

security forces; maintaining a “conditions-

based” approach before withdrawing more

troops; real dialogue between the Afghan

government and the Taliban; continuing

rights for women; and engaging our allies

in keeping up support for the Afghans.

It will be hard to make this peace. I’d esti-

mate the chances of a successful outcome—

defined as the Taliban actually accepting

a long- lasting peace—at roughly 50-50. But

we need to recognize that there is no military

solution here. We have spent much blood

and treasure on this honorable cause, and it

would be foolish to throw it away.

Stavridis was the 16th Supreme Allied

Commander of NATO

Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani, right, with NATO

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Feb. 29

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Fighting

for choice

Stephanie Toti, who

argued the last

abortion case before

the Supreme Court,

says the one now

before the court is

identical. The law at

issue is “an arbitrary

exercise of state

power that serves no

purpose other than

to restrict the pool

of doctors who are

lawfully able to provide

abortion care in

Louisiana,” she writes.

Wake-up call

The recent massacre

in Hanau, Germany,

should force the

country to confront its

far-right extremists,

writes Can Dundar,

former editor in chief of

the Turkish newspaper

Cumhuriyet. But “it’s

hard to see much

evidence of Germany

waking up to the

deeper threat of white

supremacism and

racist violence.”

Finding the

right language

Kate Harding has been

told she should call

herself a survivor of

sexual assault, not

a victim, she writes

in an essay for the

new collection Pretty

Bitches. “Is it my story

to tell or not? Is this a

thing that happened

to me, or a thing that

happens to 1 in 6

American women?”

she asks.

WAKIL KOHSAR—AFP/GETTY IMAGES