President Obama is now doing something politically difficult
— drawing down our troops from Afghanistan. However difficult it will be for
the president to weather his Washington critics, it is the right decision
politically and militarily.

The United States has been fighting in Afghanistan for
nearly a decade. It is the longest military conflict in our history, and also
the most futile and ineffective. Once Al-Qaeda had been ousted from power and
had retreated to Pakistan, there was no longer a reason for an American
presence there. When the United States finally killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin
Laden, the lack of need for a continued American military presence became
definitive. Our continued presence is overkill; we have long since won our
battles there. We know that our erstwhile enemy consists of only a few hundred
weakened and leaderless adherents in the region.

The costs of maintaining the American military in
Afghanistan are astronomical — two billion dollars a week by some estimates.
There would be some justification for this expense if the military were
actually accomplishing something of value for the United States or even for the
Afghan people, but neither is the case.

Let us be clear. The United States is in a conflict of its
own making. It set up this war more than 30 years ago in its support of
“freedom fighters” working to oust the Soviet Union from Afghan soil.
There was nothing wrong with that support at the time; however the United
States lost interest in the Afghans and their external voluntary zealot-supporters
from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Morocco the minute the Soviets had
withdrawn. These external fighters, who could not return home since they
frightened their own governments, were dumped into Pakistan with the United
States’ blessing, only to fester in their extreme views, forming the core of
Al-Qaeda.

The Taliban ex-Afghan fighters — equally reactionary to
Al-Qaeda in their religious philosophy — were first supported by the United
States, since they hoped that they would support building a pipeline for Caspian
petroleum across Afghan territory. When they were seen to protect Al-Qaeda,
they became the U.S. target.

The United States’ answer to Taliban rule was to install a
corrupt dictator, Hamid Karzai, as president of the nation. Karzai, who had
long connections with Washington and U.S. financial interests, stole billions
of U.S. dollars and never did anything to counter religious extremism in his
country. He certainly never lifted a finger to aid in the containment of
Al-Qaeda.

American troops twiddled their thumbs in Afghanistan,
half-building useless, flimsy public works that now largely stand empty. They
also wasted time trying to eradicate the only cash crop that gave Afghan
farmers any income at all — opium poppies — and engaging in random skirmishes with
Taliban guerrillas. There was never any concrete goal to the military presence
beyond containment of Al-Qaeda. Variously the United States has claimed that it
was trying to “stabilize” Afghanistan, to bring democratic government
to the nation, to assure human rights, and a hundred other ancillary tasks that
were utterly impractical and unsuccessful.

In truth, American military and political leaders never
understood Afghan society at all. They called local leaders
“warlords” and tried to destroy their power base, when in fact these
individuals had formed the core of the traditional political system in the
country and were forces for stability. They never appreciated the extraordinary
ethnic and cultural diversity of the nation, which made every region virtually
a nation within a nation, requiring tailor-made strategies for each, rather
than one-size-fits-all broad-brush measures. They failed to understand the
system of economic and political patronage that insured some modicum of
financial security for peasants. They also were totally puzzled by the
religious landscape of the country — sometimes over-the-top in its religious
stringency, at other times lax and even agnostic.

The one truly virtuous ideal upheld by Americans was the
protection of women and women’s rights. But here too the United States could
only pay lip service to this important social dynamic. It couldn’t prevent laws
curtailing women’s rights from being passed, nor could it develop a strategy
for persuading Afghan leaders to intervene in the most egregious local abuses.

One thing is clear though: The U.S. presence has been an
astonishing windfall for U.S. contractors and external advisors who reaped
billions of their own with little or no supervision at U.S. taxpayer expense.
These war profiteers are first and foremost lobbying to keep the military in
place.

What is also clear is that the Afghan people no longer want
the United States in their country — just as they have never wanted any foreign
presence on their soil. At best, the United States has relieved the Afghan
military from its own defense responsibilities. It has enriched its generals
and other military personnel, but in no way has it been effective in helping to
build an Afghan military.

Critics will say that President Obama has simply given up.
But our military leaders gave up long before the president. Virtually everyone
in command in Afghanistan, and certainly the preponderance of the rank-and-file
military, see absolutely no purpose in maintaining a U.S. presence there any
longer. It is time for them to come home and give Afghanistan what it really
wants — self determination and a nation free of foreign occupation for the
first time in decades.

The traditional leadership systems of Afghanistan should be
given time to work and establish political stability once more. This will not
be quick or easy. Here, the United States or the United Nations could play a
limited role in preventing external influence and curtailing the civil
conflict, which will likely ensue. However, the Afghans want to make their own
way. It is time to let them.