The likely result: disaster

Views from around the world. These opinions are not necessarily shared by Stuff newspapers.

President Joe Biden has decided on unconditional withdrawal of all US troops from Afghanistan, a step that may spare the US further costs and lives but will almost certainly be a disaster for the country’s 39 million people – and, in particular, its women. It could lead to the reverse of the political, economic and social progress for which the US fought for two decades, at a cost of more than 2000 American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars. And, according to the US intelligence community and a study commissioned by Congress, it could allow al-qaeda to restore its base in Afghanistan.

US officials offer various rationalisations for abandoning the elected government of Ashraf Ghani to what will be, at best, a bloody fight for survival. A strategy of leaving troops in the country in an effort to force the Taliban to compromise could extend theus commitment for years without achieving a durable peace. Perhaps, too, some officials say hopefully, the Taliban will moderate its denial ofwomen’s rights and other repressive policies to preserve international aid, without which Afghanistan’s economy would implode.

If that assessment proves wrong, Biden’s decision may simply result in the restoration of the 2001 status quo, including terrorist bases that could force a renewed US intervention. At aminimum, it will mean an abandonment of those Afghans who believed in building a democracy that guaranteed basic human rights – and the nullification of the sacrifices of the American service men who were killed or wounded in that mission. Biden has chosen the easy way out of Afghanistan, but the consequences are likely to be ugly.