Skip to main content

New top story from Time: Why Joe Biden Should Stick to the May 1 Deadline to Bring Home Troops From Afghanistan

https://ift.tt/3cWYYAw

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s impromptu visit to Kabul over the weekend where he claimed the United States seeks a “responsible end” to the war followed Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s letter to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and a leaked U.S. peace plan. These moves have made one thing clear: Washington’s foreign-policy elite is once again deluding itself, this time to think that if U.S. troops are kept in Afghanistan a bit longer, a deeper civil war can be evaded, the Taliban can be kept in check and the gains Afghans have achieved in urban areas can be protected. The reality is, whether or not President Biden withdraws all U.S. forces by May 1 in accordance with a U.S.-Taliban agreement, something he describes as “tough,” Afghanistan is likely to spiral into more violence. President Biden must accept the logical conclusion of this reality: The only variable he can control is whether American soldiers will be the target of that violence or be safe at home with their families.

The war will go on endlessly, and as such, the choice will not be one of violence versus peace in Afghanistan, but which Afghans experience the most violence.The grim reality is there is no “responsible” alternative to withdrawing from Afghanistan. A recent report by a congressionally mandated Afghanistan Study Group proposes that a U.S. withdrawal should be conditions-based. That is, it should occur only after violence plummets, intra-Afghan negotiations make significant progress and the Taliban cut all ties with al-Qaeda. That may sound good on paper, but a unilateral decision to blow past the May withdrawal deadline will destroy an already beleaguered peace process and Washington will find itself drawn back into a violent counterinsurgency. It will annul the U.S.-Taliban agreement, which, despite its flaws and failure to bring peace to Afghans, led to a year without a single U.S. combat death, and leave President Biden to once again await American caskets at Dover Air Force Base.

Staying in Afghanistan may temporarily stave off the Taliban from capturing Afghanistan’s largest cities, but violence will surge in the countryside where the majority of Afghans live. President Biden will invariably be asked to send additional troops to Afghanistan or compensate with airstrikes as the Taliban amps up its insurgency even more. Rural Afghans will find themselves stuck in the crossfire as a scorned Taliban squares off against a reanimated U.S.-led counterinsurgency backed by deafening airpower. The war will go on endlessly, and as such, the choice will not be one of violence versus peace in Afghanistan, but which Afghans experience the most violence.

Another option the Biden team is considering is to use international pressure to persuade the Taliban to accept a one-time extension of the U.S. troop withdrawal deadline by at least six months to achieve some semblance of a peace deal. Blinken’s letter suggests that aspects of this option are already under way and he proposed a meeting in Turkey between the Taliban and various representatives of the Afghan government to push toward a peace deal. Turkey confirmed it will host this summit in April. This path is offered as an alternative to retaining a small counterterrorism presence that will inevitably fall prey to mission creep. Proponents of this plan convincingly argue that significant progress toward a political settlement is unlikely to occur prior to May 1. The Biden Administration appears to be going a step further by proposing an interim government as part of its leaked peace plan. This is a high-stakes, high-reward plan. If it succeeds, then it offers the possibility of a full U.S. withdrawal from a more stable Afghanistan, a reliable counterterrorism partner in Kabul and the minimal conditions necessary for foreign aid. But that’s a very big “if” and analysts warn it will likely fail. In fact, President Ghani already signaled his rejection of the U.S. peace plan according to reports that he will announce his own, including new elections conditioned on a ceasefire that the Taliban is likely to reject.

The Taliban is adamantly opposed to delaying the withdrawal of foreign troops. Any chance of altering their position will require regional drivers of the war like Pakistan to use leverage against the Taliban that may not exist and that Islamabad is unlikely to deploy even if it does. Pakistan recently joined Russia, China and the United States in a joint statement urging the Taliban to forego a spring offensive, but it’s unclear whether this public pressure will translate into action. Iran’s cooperation will also be needed at a time when formal channels of communication have been dormant for four years. And Washington and Kabul will likely have to provide their own concessions. An acquiescence by the Taliban to an extension will only take things back to square one. The violence, corruption, cronyism and distrust that plague Afghan negotiations today will still exist in six months. The Biden Administration will then find itself even more invested in an intractable and volatile conflict, having forfeited a clear pathway out in May.

These catch-22s lead us to the only viable path forward, which is to accept that the U.S. military cannot dictate the end state in Afghanistan. The longer the Biden Administration delays in making the inevitable decision to withdraw, the more precarious a position it will place U.S. troops, NATO allies and, ultimately, the future of Afghanistan. President Biden has made his priorities in Afghanistan clear in the recent past. When asked in February 2020 if he felt he would bear responsibility if the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan, he replied, “The responsibility I have is to protect America’s national self-interest and not put our women and men in harm’s way to try to solve every single problem in the world by use of force.”

Pulling U.S. troops out by May will fulfill this duty by removing young Americans from the crosshairs of the last 20 years of war. True, without U.S. troops, the Taliban may have little incentive to participate meaningfully in negotiations with the Afghan government and a civil war reminiscent of the 1990s may very well ensue. Many young Afghans may feel abandoned by the United States. But intra-Afghan negotiations have made little progress even with the presence of foreign troops and staying will only tie Washington to equally violent outcomes that it cannot control. Just last week, a helicopter carrying Afghan special forces members was shot down by a local militia purportedly raised to protect the local community from groups like the Taliban. When it comes to ending the violence, Biden has a better chance of achieving sustainable progress through regional diplomacy than through open-ended war, even if things get worse before they get better.

We don’t envy Biden’s dilemma. His worry about being blamed for post-withdrawal violence is understandable. That images of gleeful Taliban fighters flashing across American television screens will cost him politically is undeniable. But delaying a withdrawal will not alter this reality, it will only compound it. Instead, Biden should worry about the political cost of squandering the best opportunity yet to end America’s longest war. He should continue to facilitate diplomacy but without using U.S. troops as collateral. If Biden chooses to stay, every dead soldier, every family broken and every opportunity wasted to build back better at home will rest on his shoulders and taint his legacy. America’s endless war in Afghanistan will become Biden’s war.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bihar: Stages collapse during Congress rallies in Darbhanga, West Champaran https://ift.tt/37QFnks

The stage on which Congress candidate from Jale assembly seat, Mashkoor Ahmad Usman was addressing a rally broke and collapsed in Bihar's Darbhanga on Thursday. In a similar incident, another stage collapsed and took down party leaders Imran Pratapgarhi and Akhilesh Singh along with several party workers who were on the dias, during a Congress rally at Bagahi Deoraj in Champaran.

FOX NEWS: Bride's father asks stepdad to help walk her down the aisle in sweet viral moment A selfless gesture by the father of a bride was shared on social media in a viral moment of him surprising the girl’s stepfather by asking him to help walk her to the altar.

Bride's father asks stepdad to help walk her down the aisle in sweet viral moment A selfless gesture by the father of a bride was shared on social media in a viral moment of him surprising the girl’s stepfather by asking him to help walk her to the altar. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/ZkQ1Rpt

New Dashboards Give a Window into Muni Service Changes

New Dashboards Give a Window into Muni Service Changes By Kate McCarthy An inspector manages Muni service. New dashboards that help inform changes to Muni service are now live at SFMTA.com/MuniData Many factors inform our decisions about Muni service adjustments. These include making sure changes to service support the SFMTA’s values, which are economic vitality, environmental stewardship, trust and equity. We also evaluate travel patterns. You can now explore these patterns using the new Muni data dashboards  (SFMTA.com/MuniData). When looking at possible Muni service changes, the first thing we do is turn to the Muni Service Equity Strategy for guidance. Using the Muni Service Equity Strategy, we prioritize providing Muni service along routes that more often serve people of color, members of low-income households, and/or those who are dependent upon transit service, including people with disabilities and seniors. We also use ridership data to analyze where riders are boa...

India reports first 6 cases of new coronavirus strain after UK returnees test positive https://ift.tt/3pA0T2j

India on Tuesday reported the first six cases of the new coronavirus strain after six people who had returned from the United Kingdom were tested positive for the new UK variant genome. According to the details, the new coronavirus strain cases were reported from Hyderabad, Pune and Bangalore. Samples of 3 UK returnees were tested and found positive for the new UK strain in NIMHANS, Bengaluru. The other two cases were tested at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad; while the last case was tested at the National Institute of Virology, Pune.

FOX NEWS: Ohio amusement park shut down after multiple fights break out Kings Island in Mason, around 20 miles north of Cincinnati, closed down 30 minutes early Saturday night after several fights among teenagers occurred, reports suggest.

Ohio amusement park shut down after multiple fights break out Kings Island in Mason, around 20 miles north of Cincinnati, closed down 30 minutes early Saturday night after several fights among teenagers occurred, reports suggest. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3wsn8uI

New top story from Time: At Thanksgiving, Biden Seeks Unity as Trump Stokes Fading Embers of a Campaign

https://ift.tt/3q4cU1i WILMINGTON, Del. — On a day of grace and grievance, President-elect Joe Biden summoned Americans to join in common purpose against the coronavirus pandemic and their political divisions while the man he will replace stoked the fading embers of his campaign to “turn the election over.” Biden, in a Thanksgiving-eve address to the nation, put the surging pandemic front and center, pledging to tap the “vast powers” of the federal government and to “change the course of the disease” once in office. But for that to work, he said, Americans must step up for their own safety and that of their fellow citizens. “I know the country has grown weary of the fight,” Biden said Wednesday. “We need to remember we’re at war with the virus, not with one another. Not with each other.” President Donald Trump, who has scarcely mentioned the pandemic in recent days even as it has achieved record heights, remained fixated on his election defeat. He sent his lawyer Rudy ...

PM Modi lauds IFS officers for their work towards serving nation, furthering national interests https://ift.tt/36HoEzw

Greeting Indian Foreign Service officers on IFS day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that their work towards serving the nation and furthering national interests globally are commendable. Their efforts during the Vande Bharat Mission, which was launched to bring Indians home from abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic as international travel came to a halt, and other related help to our citizens and other nations is noteworthy, Modi added.

New top story from Time: In New Zealand, ‘Hello’ Has Become ‘Kia Ora.’ Will That Save the Māori Language?

https://ift.tt/2LMKZ6a Kenny Williams began to study the Māori language during his second COVID-19 lockdown . Williams, 36, lives alone and the isolation made him yearn to feel closer to his identity as an indigenous New Zealander—an identity he had spent most of his childhood trying to hide. After he ordered some Māori language books, he found his studies helped him build a connection to his Māori history. “I didn’t know it was a gap that was missing in my life,” he says. It’s not just lockdown isolation—New Zealanders of all stripes are signing up to learn the language of the Māori people, New Zealand’s original inhabitants—“te reo Māori,” as it is widely called. But COVID-19 may have provided a boost: One university reported that 7,000 people accessed a free online Māori language and culture course in a 10-day period during lockdown. The New Zealand government has pledged to ensure 1 million residents are able to speak basic Māori by 2040—an effort to revive a langu...

New Muni Service Changes Start Saturday, August 19

New Muni Service Changes Start Saturday, August 19 By Clive Tsuma 28R 19th Avenue will run on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. starting Monday, August 21.  Back to School  With SFUSD students returning to school August 16, many families who rely on Muni to get to school will see service increase after school as part of the new schedule. Because Muni vehicles often become crowded during morning peak hours and sometimes pass up stops when there is not enough room for more riders, families are encouraged to plan their trips ahead of time and hop on Muni early to make sure students get to school on time.  With every public school in the San Francisco Unified School District being served by at least one Muni route , students can expect extra Muni service on the first day of the school this fall and continue providing service throughout the school year. While the Muni service changes won’t be implemented until August 19, school tripper service will be offered starting Au...

Safer and Easier Parking in Every City-Owned Facility

Safer and Easier Parking in Every City-Owned Facility By Pamela Johnson Parking at any of our 22 city-owned facilities is now easier and safer than ever. Late last month we completed the Parking Access Revenue and Control Systems (PARCS) project. This four-year effort replaced aging parking equipment with modern technology and significant operational upgrades. Customer using new PARCS kiosk at North Beach parking garage Patrons will notice enhanced lighting, new wayfinding signs, audible alarms, cameras, gate arms, and payment machines with two-way digital intercoms . Behind the scenes is an all-new parking management system and 24/7 command center, connected to every machine. Can’t find your ticket to pay for parking?  No worries! Thanks to license plate recognition technology, cameras located at every facility’s entrance capture patrons’ plate numbers as they arrive . If a customer loses her ticket, the manager is able to re-issue a ticket based on her license plate...