Afghanistan

[pnwguy]

Tom Nichols, author of The Death Of Expertise, posted this piece today at The Atlantic.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/afghanistan-your-fault/619769/

[indy]

Aug 16, 2021 14:11:24 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

I'm also struck by the Afghans utter unwillingness to fight for their own country. They are ready to follow their tribal chieftains but not the duly established government.

I think it's pretty clear given the speed at which things collapsed that whatever the U.S. thinks it has been doing for twenty years is mostly just an illusion. There was no established central government, only a mirage of one created by U.S. money and arms.

[Bact PhD]

Aug 16, 2021 15:53:55 GMT pnwguy said:

Tom Nichols, author of The Death Of Expertise, posted this piece today at The Atlantic.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/afghanistan-your-fault/619769/

From the piece:

A serious people—the kind of people we once were—would have made serious choices, long before this current debacle was upon them. They would today be trying to learn something from nearly 2,500 dead service members and many more wounded. They would be grimly assessing risk and preparing both overseas and at home for the reality of a terrorist nation making its way back onto the international map.
Instead, we’re bickering about masks. We’re holding super-spreader events. We’re complaining and finger-pointing about who ruined our fall plans. (I’m part of that last group. Spoiler: It’s the people who refused easily accessible vaccinations.)

A damning, if accurate, assessment. How many people (even in our age group) could even find Afghanistan on a map, let alone consider the potential consequences of this or that elected official’s position on the war? Versus how many can rattle off football stats or the latest doings of (fill in the blank) Kardashian, even if the show is wrapped up?

[Deleted]

Aug 16, 2021 16:02:44 GMT indy said:

Aug 16, 2021 14:11:24 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

I'm also struck by the Afghans utter unwillingness to fight for their own country. They are ready to follow their tribal chieftains but not the duly established government.

I think it's pretty clear given the speed at which things collapsed that whatever the U.S. thinks it has been doing for twenty years is mostly just an illusion. There was no established central government, only a mirage of one created by U.S. money and arms.

Once again it shows bootstrapping a 7th century society in to the 21st (or, even the 20th.) century through direct external intervention is impossible. Societal revolution has to happen organically and over time for the gains to vest. 

[indy]

That organic revolution which springs up over common causes, usually in response to external pressures, is the stuff that binds a country together. Afghanistan was cobbled together from disparate tribes by external force and so their only common cause has ever been repelling the invaders.

[LFC]

Josh Marshall says that the lightning fast collapse of the Afghan government and military only proves that they were smoke and mirrors being propped up by the U.S. There was no "there" there to stay to defend.

Americans, or at least the commentating classes, are watching aghast as events unfold in Afghanistan. Some are second-guessing the wisdom of withdrawal – after all, how hard is it to maintain a few thousand soldiers there permanently? Others are taking the more comfortable position of saying yes, we had to leave but this just wasn’t the right way. I must be the only person in America who is having exactly the opposite reaction. The more I see the more I’m convinced this was the right decision – both what I see on the ground in Afghanistan and perhaps even more the reaction here in the United States.

It is crystal clear that the Afghan national army and really the Afghan state was an illusion. It could not survive first contact with a post-US military reality. As is so often the case in life – with bad investments, bad relationships – what we were doing there was staying to delay our reckoning with the consequences of the reality of the situation.

That’s a bad idea.

More from Josh.

What we have seen over the last couple weeks shows decisively and irrefutably that the entire politico-military project in Afghanistan was an illusion. Lots of criticism from this or that person, look at what’s happened to everything we built, look what’s been squandered. But what you built was the Afghan state and the military. What we’re seeing here shows you built nothing. We built nothing. The Taliban haven’t so much conquered the post-2002 Afghan state as nudged it over. Asked it to step aside and it complied. There was simply nothing there.

I’ve seen lots of US vets, diplomats and military hands on Twitter over the last few days. And I can see this comes as a gut punch to so many. We’ve had a couple generations of young Americans fighting there: more than 2,300 dead, many more traumatic brain injuries, brutal effort. As I noted yesterday we have a profound obligation to protect the Afghans who worked with us and are now imperiled by that association. We can and should honor that effort and sacrifice. But that doesn’t change the picture we can see here clearly in front of us.

It’s clear that while able, operationally, to understand the limitations of the Afghan army, the US military simply bought into this facade. As Lute says above, “the Pentagon believed its own narrative that we would stay forever.”

"We would stay forever." Roll that around in your head. Welcome to the thinking of the top brass in this country.

[LFC]

Oh, yeah. And it wasn't an intelligence failure.

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) has a statement out that is at least semi-critical of the Biden administration’s handling of Afghanistan. I’ll print the whole thing below. But it’s this statement that caught my eye: “We also need to determine what intelligence failures led to underestimating the ease and speed of the Taliban’s advancement and work to ensure that we prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a safe haven for terrorists.”

There are after-action reports for everything the US government does. But this sentiment is exactly wrong. There’s no intelligence failure. We don’t need to pretend there is. Every actual report going back many years portrayed the Afghan army is thoroughly compromised by corruption and beset by chronically bad morale. Desertion was commonplace. This isn’t a surprise and we shouldn’t pretend it is.

Read your damn history first. There's 20 years of reports, both media and intelligence, that should make it clear that the Afghan gov't and military were never going to stand up. They took what they could grab and now they're gone.

[LFC]

The position on Afghanistan at The American Conservative seems to be pretty consistent. There's certainly criticism of Biden but also Trump, Obama, W, and especially the military brass but it all comes down to agreement that getting the f*** out is the most important part of the story.

Republicans Buck Biden on Afghanistan at Their Political Peril

A Required Course for Americans: Strategic Failure 101

At Empire’s End

2024 Republicans Quietly Back Biden on Afghanistan

[sigh] And then there's Dreher. He almost got it right and he could have cut it off leaving a reasonable post. Instead, as Rod is wont to do, he somehow desperately tied the story to "wokeness." Everything, and I mean everything, goes back to his personal feelings of victimization and impending doom. In short he's insane.

This is on the elites. This is on elites like Carter Malkasian, senior adviser to the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2015-2019. In this piece from last month in Politico, he admits that it never really occurred to these American geniuses that the Taliban were really motivated by their religion. Excerpt:

[snip]

Gosh, you think? What the hell did these eggheads think that the Taliban were?! It’s like a senior American expert in 1945 writing that it was surprising to discover that the Nazis really cared a lot about race. This is what happens when you have an elite that is wholly secular, and incapable of thinking outside that narrow box. Why did they tap Ghani as president? Because he was the most secularized, technocratic Afghan politician — somebody American experts could understand, but also someone incapable of inspiring loyalty among Afghanis.

This is not going to get any better. I want you to recall something I’ve written about in this space before. It’s what a European friend told me was the upshot of his time doing graduate studies a couple of years ago at Harvard. He said it was shocking to him to see how so many students asked professors not to talk about issues and topics that triggered their anxiety — and how professors yielded to these crazy requests. My friend said this happened in class after class. It scandalized him. He said that not one of his fellow students doubted that they were destined to enter into the elite class of leadership. It shook him up. He said that his country depends on a strong USA, but he could tell that the next generation of leadership elites are going to be even more fragile and wrongheaded than the current one.

We are in serious trouble. Look at this:

The sergeant major continues:

The U.S. Army is focused on preparing for large-scale combat operations. Its training, equipment, experience in combat, and the quality of its Soldiers make it effective and lethal. The diversity within the U.S. military’s forces must grow and adapt to the diversity of the United States. The cultural and ethnic differences of its Soldiers are the unique assets that our adversaries lack. Diversity in the U.S. Army is its strength and combat multiplier.

How could that possibly be true? Our military is ethnically diverse, no doubt about it. The fact that it works in spite of people coming from so many different “tribes” is a great thing. But color me skeptical that diversity is a military “strength and combat multiplier.” That’s something a junior officer says to show the commissars that he is reliable.

Look at these guys. They lack diversity. You know what their strength was? Allah. Allah, tribalism, and nationalism.

So Rod makes the case for a Taliban style military because, you know, the situation on the ground in Afghanistan is directly comparable to the one in the U.S. Onward Christian soldiers! As for diversity he can't grasp that drawing from the many groups of people in the nation and encouraging them to stay in the military is a smart move. He'd rather we stick with the shrinking white, Christian, and less educated part of the population that we've been using.

What this clearly shows is that Rod has some level of admiration for virtually any society that is based upon religious homogeneity or at least supremacy, no matter how awful the overall outcomes for people living in those societies.

[Rue Bella]

The mere fact this collapse took a scant few days proves there was nothing of substance in the US propped up extended Afhgan government. House of Cards indeed.

[Deleted]

Aug 17, 2021 14:49:41 GMT Rue Bella said:

The mere fact this collapse took a scant few days proves there was nothing of substance in the US propped up extended Afhgan government. House of Cards indeed.

Still the Biden administration shouldn't have allowed the house of cards to come crumbling down on its head. Of all people, Biden knew the Afghan regime to be a house of cards. There have been too many tactical and operational errors in the process of disengagement. As I wrote yesterday, I don't know if the withdrawal is a strategic error too. American strategic interests are entirely driven by defensive security needs - preventing Islamic terrorism to re-root in Afghanistan. Nation building, while morally appealing, isn't within US reach for a society so retrograde.

I fear this debacle has badly wounded Biden's authority to govern. The stench of the debacle will fade but the stain he'll carry.

[Rue Bella]

I fear this debacle has badly wounded Biden's authority to govern. The stench of the debacle will fade but the stain he'll carry.

I doubt that. The bottom line is that after 20 years of futility, not that many really care about Afghanistan, and what happens there. 

[LFC]

TPM notes (paywalled) the sudden change of heart by Republicans. Gee, what a shock.

The Republican Party wants you to forget that just a few months ago the GOP agreed that the move to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, which Biden is now being criticized for, was sound foreign policy.

Former President Trump put out a statement yesterday, calling on Biden to “resign in disgrace” over the “tragic mess” in Afghanistan and criticizing the President for the manner in which he removed U.S. forces from the Middle East. Confusing, because at one point this spring he posted a statement calling out the Biden administration for not getting U.S. troops out of the region faster than it did, and calling Biden’s intention to withdraw a “wonderful and positive thing to do.” Part of the Biden administration’s thinking on pull-out was centered on concerns about the Taliban retaliating against American forces if the U.S. didn’t withdraw by the deadline that Trump scheduled.

Daniel Strauss
@danielstrauss4
·
21h
"Getting out of Afghanistan is a wonderful and positive thing to do. I planned to withdraw on May 1st, and we should keep as close to that schedule as possible."

Charlie Sykes
@sykescharlie
· 22h
Before it gets completely memory-holed.

Then, the Republican National Committee scrubbed references on its website to Trump’s efforts to negotiate with the Taliban during his presidency. We reported on this earlier this afternoon, but, if you recall, Trump touted a “peace deal” with the Taliban back in February of 2020, an effort to move the U.S. out of the region. At one point, there were talks of Trump wanting to bring Taliban leaders to Camp David to finalize negotiations. That didn’t end up happening.

Others like former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have made similar statements about Biden’s troop-removal process, putting the party in a position of hypocrisy — and hoping Americans just conveniently forget things — because of Trump. Again.

As the party executes this fool-proof plan, it has at least one thorn in its side.

Vocal Trump critics like Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) aren’t letting Republicans and those critical of the unfolding situation in Afghanistan forget that former President Trump and his administration tried to make similar moves to those that the Biden administration has carried out in recent months.

While critical of the Biden administration’s decision to officially pull the U.S. out of the region, Kinzinger — a veteran of the U.S. Air Force who served as a pilot in both Iraq and Afghanistan — posted a series of tweets going after his party, Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Kinzinger warned Republicans that Trump couldn’t “memory hole” his administration’s efforts to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Adam Kinzinger
@adamkinzinger
Oh Trump can’t memory hole this. Real Americans won’t forget. Right @danscavino? You tweeted all the #Afghanistan stuff…

No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen
@noliewithbtc
BREAKING: The Republican Party has deleted a page from their website that pointed out that Trump wanted to pull out of Afghanistan.

He went after Pompeo for posting similar takes, as well as Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), former Trump social media staffer Dan Scavino and gun-toting congresswoman Lauren Boebert.

U.S. intelligence predicted just last week that it would take weeks for Taliban militants to take hold of the city of Kabul. It only took a few days, and the situation escalated substantially over the weekend, leaving the U.S. in the position it is now, scrambling to evacuate personnel and allies from the region.

While he admitted the Taliban takeover happened quicker than U.S. officials expected, Biden defended his decision in a speech on Monday, with cutting precision: The Talibans quick takeover shows just how necessary it was for the U.S. to get out of the country.

“American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,” he said Monday.

[Deleted]

Aug 17, 2021 16:40:08 GMT Rue Bella said:

I fear this debacle has badly wounded Biden's authority to govern. The stench of the debacle will fade but the stain he'll carry.

I doubt that. The bottom line is that after 20 years of futility, not that many really care about Afghanistan, and what happens there. 

Public opinion could be anything since no-one demands accountability of the public. There's no penalty to be paid for bad opinions. So it can afford to be fickle.

Biden may be steadfast his decision to withdraw is the right one. Public sees what's on TV right now. What's on TV right now is avoidable chaos. Chaos of our own making. The guy at the helm gets the bulk share of blame. The images surely dent American prestige and credibility. I understand people wouldn't care after a few weeks what happens in Afghanistan, but people care about the loss of face of their own country. The fickleness of the public is going show. As stories and images of medieval brutality of the Taliban reemerges, it'll cause further loss of face which in turn make public opinion to go sour. Further.

The resulting loss of confidence in Biden would adversely impact his ability to haul his agenda through Congress. It was difficult before the debacle. Now, doubly so.

On a strategic level, the loss of confidence of the global community in America continues. And with it, the diminution of American advantages.

[Rue Bella]

On a strategic level, the loss of confidence of the global community in America continues. And with it, the diminution of American advantages.

We lost far more face as a country when the American people actually elected Donald Trump as president in '16. No matter what happens in Afghanistan, that election is something we will never live down. That was an infinitely greater stain on the US than withdrawing from a country after 20 years of financial hemorrhaging, death and permanent injury. In a month, this will only still matter to those who thought Benghazzii really mattered. Or 'her emails'. 

As long as the US is perceived to be rich and powerful, it will retain its 'advantages'. It's a manifestation of the real golden rule - he who has the gold makes the rules. 

[andydp]

I've read articles about the mineral wealth of Afghanistan. 

I have also read China is poised to recognize the new government and of course, begin mining.  

A few Foreign Ministries (including the US) have said they will be keeping and eye on human rights under the new regime.  (Sadly we all know what that will involve).  You can make money on the fact China will give a rat's patoot about sanctions for human rights violations.  Of course any commentary about China's deportment in Afghanistan will be met with "stay out of Chinese affairs".

[goldenvalley]

Aug 17, 2021 19:04:57 GMT Rue Bella said:

On a strategic level, the loss of confidence of the global community in America continues. And with it, the diminution of American advantages.

We lost far more face as a country when the American people actually elected Donald Trump as president in '16. No matter what happens in Afghanistan, that election is something we will never live down. That was an infinitely greater stain on the US than withdrawing from a country after 20 years of financial hemorrhaging, death and permanent injury. In a month, this will only still matter to those who thought Benghazzii really mattered. Or 'her emails'. 

As long as the US is perceived to be rich and powerful, it will retain its 'advantages'. It's a manifestation of the real golden rule - he who has the gold makes the rules. 

I tend to agree with Rue on this.  Most of the world couldn't locate Afghanistan on a map. The main reason the US paid attention back when the Soviets were in the country was the Cold War.  After that no one paid attention until the US made a big deal about Bin Ladin being there post 9/11.  It will sink back into obscurity soon.  And yes...the election of Donald Trump will provide a far more lasting reason to laugh at the US and its much touted exceptionalism.  

[LFC]

The vast majority of the people who will be angry at Biden for pulling out were never going to vote for him anyway. When the U.S. is out and the images stop flowing the "what ifs" of the withdrawal will disappear. I agree with the TAC article that warns Republicans about re-embracing the Afghanistan mission too hard. They'll be punished for preaching that more of our soldiers should have died and been maimed to prop up what was clearly an illusion of nation building.

[Rue Bella]

apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-kabul-1d4b052ccef113adc8dc94f965ff23c7

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban vowed Tuesday to respect women’s rights, forgive those who fought them and ensure Afghanistan does not become a haven for terrorists as part of a publicity blitz aimed at reassuring world powers and a fearful population.

Following a lightning offensive across Afghanistan that saw many cities fall to the insurgents without a fight, the Taliban have sought to portray themselves as more moderate than when they imposed a strict form of Islamic rule in the late 1990s. But many Afghans remain skeptical — and thousands have raced to the airport, desperate to flee the country.

Older generations remember the Taliban’s previous rule, when they largely confined women to their homes, banned television and music, and held public executions. A U.S.-led invasion drove them from power months after the 9/11 attacks, which al-Qaida had orchestrated from Afghanistan while being sheltered by the Taliban.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s longtime spokesman, emerged from the shadows Tuesday in his first-ever public appearance to address those concerns at a news conference.

He promised the Taliban would honor women’s rights within the norms of Islamic law, without elaborating. The Taliban have encouraged women to return to work and have allowed girls to return to school, handing out Islamic headscarves at the door. A female news anchor interviewed a Taliban official Monday in a TV studio.

The treatment of women varies widely across the Muslim world and sometimes even within the same country, with rural areas tending to be far more conservative. Some Muslim countries, including neighboring Pakistan, have had female prime ministers, while ultraconservative Saudi Arabia only recently allowed women to drive.

Mujahid also said the Taliban would not allow Afghanistan to be used as a base for attacking other countries, as it was in the years before 9/11. That assurance was part of a 2020 peace deal reached between the Taliban and the Trump administration that paved the way for the American withdrawal.

The Pentagon said U.S. commanders are communicating with the Taliban as they work to evacuate thousands of people through Kabul’s international airport. It said the Taliban have taken no hostile actions there.

Mujahid reiterated that the Taliban have offered full amnesty to Afghans who worked for the U.S. and the Western-backed government, saying “nobody will go to their doors to ask why they helped.” He said private media should “remain independent” but that journalists “should not work against national values.”

Kabul, the capital, has remained calm as the Taliban patrol its streets. But many remain fearful after prisons and armories emptied out during the insurgents’ sweep across the country.

Kabul residents say groups of armed men have been going door-to-door seeking out individuals who worked with the ousted government and security forces, but it was unclear if the gunmen were Taliban or criminals posing as militants. Mujahid blamed the security breakdown on the former government, saying the Taliban only entered Kabul in order to restore law and order after the police melted away.

A broadcaster in Afghanistan said she was hiding at a relative’s house, too frightened to return home much less go to work. She said she and other women do not believe the Taliban have changed their ways. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety.

A group of women wearing Islamic headscarves demonstrated briefly in Kabul, holding signs demanding the Taliban not “eliminate women” from public life.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. and other governments will not simply take the Taliban at their word when it comes to women’s rights.

“Like I’ve said all along, this is not about trust. This is about verify,” Sullivan said at a White House briefing. “And we’ll see what the Taliban end up doing in the days and weeks ahead, and when I say we, I mean the entire international community.”

Whatever their true intentions, the Taliban have an interest in projecting moderation to prevent the international community from isolating their government, as it did in the 1990s.

[Rue Bella]

Aug 17, 2021 20:13:48 GMT LFC said:

The vast majority of the people who will be angry at Biden for pulling out were never going to vote for him anyway. When the U.S. is out and the images stop flowing the "what ifs" of the withdrawal will disappear. I agree with the TAC article that warns Republicans about re-embracing the Afghanistan mission too hard. They'll be punished for preaching that more of our soldiers should have died and been maimed to prop up what was clearly an illusion of nation building.

(Bold mine)

From a GOP perspective, not only the Afghanistan mission, but the Afghan people as well. When all is said and done, they are still dark-skinned Moozlims who allowed the Taliban to gain control in the first place... and after 20 years of US beneficence... to take over a second time this past week.

Who has learned more from this entire adventure - the Taliban or the GOP?

[LFC]

Aug 17, 2021 20:24:22 GMT Rue Bella said:

From a GOP perspective, not only the Afghanistan mission, but the Afghan people as well. When all is said and done, they are still dark-skinned Moozlims who allowed the Taliban to gain control in the first place... and after 20 years of US beneficence... to take over a second time this past week.

They're already spouting "you can get out of the country but you can't stay here" that you'd expect from the party of white Christianist supremacy.

Conservative leaders who have been quick to condemn President Joe Biden for failing to evacuate Afghan allies are now insisting that those refugees cannot be brought to the United States.

Right-wing broadcaster Steve Bannon made the point on his Tuesday War Room program.

"That photo of the 800 people on the plane -- only 150 Americans," Bannon noted. "And the question is where are they taking these, the people that helped us in Afghanistan, the commandos, the interpreters, all that -- you've got to stay in region."

"No need for anybody to come to the gold old United States of America," he added. "Everybody take a deep breath. Let's get them out of there. Let's get them out of Afghanistan. But no need to come to Wisconsin or Texas."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who appeared on Bannon's program, agreed with the right-wing host.

"And we don't have to hear about refugees being brought into our country leading to the likeness of Ilhan Omar becoming members of Congress one day," she said.

Florida Rep. Anthony Sabatini echoed the sentiment in a tweet.

"Any Republican that doesn't help fight against the plan to bring 100k Afghans into the country must be primaried," he wrote. "Every @gop official must go on record NOW."

[GRowell]

All I can see is spin and blame shifting for the hideously chaotic exit that is betraying the Afgans who worked with us and all Afgan women. The buck stops with Biden, plain and simple.

I hope he has the decency to admit he and his administration f- up big time. Only then can we move on. We will see.

[jackd]

Pretty hard to see how it could have been done "well" once our withdrawal was announced or perceived.

[LFC]

Aug 18, 2021 11:44:53 GMT GRowell said:

Only then can we move on.

A ton of evidence says you're incorrect on that. This will drop down the memory hole pretty quickly. This isn't a comment to try to describe it as any less of a shitshow than it is, it's an observation on how quickly people move on. Sure the Republicans will try to use it as a campaign issue but it won't have much impact.

It's odd that there are places in the world where people are still being murdered over ancient grudges. It's also odd that in America, where memory holing is an art, there are still people pissed off about losing their war for slavery. People are messed up.

[pnwguy]

Aug 18, 2021 12:53:35 GMT LFC said:

It's also odd that in America, where memory holing is an art, there are still people pissed off about losing The War of Northern Aggression their war for slavery. People are messed up.

FIFY.  Never forget the patriots that defended southern freedom.  Those statues and monuments are sacred ground.

</snark> 

[LFC]

This is a pretty brutal takedown of American nation building in Afghanistan and how we helped build their house of cards. I think there's a bit of overstatement of blame but I really don't see how even a motivated people could have succeeded in the cluster-f*** we built.

The images of the fall of Kabul will forever represent one of America’s biggest diplomatic failures: Americans occupying the airport in Kabul, focusing on evacuating their own while terrified Afghans cling to the departing C-17 aircraft.

Virtually every American news channel has been focused on the fate of hundreds of thousands of Afghans who risked their lives to support the U.S. military and civilian mission. Everyone knows that the Taliban has a list of the so-called collaborators who are being hunted down and killed along with their families. But many Americans are in a quandary. They hear the figures recited: 2,448 U.S. service members killed through April; all at an estimated price tag of $2.3-6.5 trillion. What they are less likely to hear are these figures: at least 111,000 Afghan civilians have been killed or injured since 2009 alone. The Taliban killed so many members of the Afghan National Defense and Security forces in 2016 that the American and Afghan governments decided to keep casualty figures a secret for fear of further eviscerating their morale.

Rightly so, many Americans are asking whether it was all worth it. But the truth is, this war was unwinnable from the get-go. Here’s why.

Pakistan was always the problem.
The biggest American blunder was going to war with the one country dedicated to undermining American objectives at every turn, even while raking in tens of billions of dollars in the fictive guise of supporting them: Pakistan. Pakistan’s perfidy was evident from the earliest days of the war and it continues now, helping its assets—the Taliban—squeeze the democratic life from Afghanistan wherever and however it can.