Nothing but disaster

Inching closer: Taliban fighters stand guard inside the city of Ghazni, south-west of Kabul on Friday, just weeks before the United States is set to officially end its two-decade war. — AP

WHAT difference could a few thousand US troops possibly make to the outcome of a decades-long war in a broken country? That question constituted President Joe Biden’s central argument for withdrawing from the conflict in Afghanistan.

Now, unfortunately, we have our answer. Those troops were the crucial difference between an ugly but acceptable stalemate and a stunning collapse of the Afghan government, with all the humanitarian and strategic traumas that will follow.