In FREErad!cals
Michael O’Hanlon and Bruce Riedel insisted in an op-ed last week that the United States must stay in Afghanistan “until the job is done.” While they are wise to warn against making rash decisions based on the particularly tragic events of the last few weeks, they never convincingly explain when the job should end and how we can expect to accomplish it in the next few years if we – to borrow a phrase from the last war – stay the course. The mission and objectives O’Hanlon and Riedel envision are of the never-ending variety: creating a viable, stable nation where none has previously existed. They also ignore their former, wiser caution on the future of the war.
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