There's much to be uneasy about as U.S. leaves Afghanistan

I heard a story while at National Defense University about a corporal who said that fighting in Afghanistan was "like fighting in the Bible."

To be sure, parts of Afghanistan remain very much pre-modern. Mud and stone houses that cling to the sides of the country's steep mountains look very much the same as they did centuries ago, with the exception of the occasional satellite dish that now peeks above a grass roof where goats graze.

Twenty years of involvement by the United States and its NATO allies - not to mention hundreds of billions of dollars - have changed Afghanistan in fundamental ways, but it is still a tribal society with a shaky sense of national identity.

Two weeks ago, President Biden made a decision to remove - by September - the remaining U.S. troops and contractors. Our NATO allies don't necessarily agree. Some might try to stay in some training capacity. It is just another sign that the decision has been received uneasily. The President's central point is that the United States entered Afghanistan to deal with the terrorist threat of al-Qaida, which has been severely degraded. Today, terrorists threats have metastasized elsewhere and the Taliban are a domestic insurgency not geared to strike beyond Afghanistan's borders against American or Western targets. He also recognizes that given the Taliban's ability to operate from Pakistan that a military victory is not possible.

There is also the matter of the deal struck by the Trump administration, which pledged the withdrawal of U.S. forces. He could justifiably toss out the agreement arguing that the Taliban has not lived up to its end of the deal - and it hasn't - but reversing the deal would mean the moratorium on attacks against U.S. troops would come to an end and there would most certainly be more U.S. casualties.

The counter-argument is that America's small footprint acts as a control rod that keeps the current government - corrupt and inefficient as it is - in place and gives Afghanistan more time to nation build and keep the Taliban at bay. The President's question is one that had to be asked: How long is that? No one knows.

There have been brave words from officials in the Afghan government, but several reports suggest that despite years of training and investment, the Afghan National Army remains a "disaster." The fear is that the Taliban would overrun the shaky government in Kabul and the country

would plunge into a tribal civil war. In areas controlled by the Taliban, human rights - especially for women - would be shredded. The question is, if that happened and the world saw horrific scenes on their televisions of atrocities against Afghans, particularly women, what would President Biden do? How much would American credibility be harmed?

I met a professor who taught elite Afghan MBA students in Kabul and they were discussing Afghanistan's potential natural resources. There were estimates that there is a trove of up to $1 trillion in rare earths in its soil. The professor asked: "Do you realize how much that is?" and wrote a one followed by 12 zeros on the board. One of the students stood and said: "Madam. You don't understand. The one is for 'them.' The zeros are for us."

The United States walked away from Afghanistan once before after the Soviet withdrawal. Now, many Afghans will feel betrayed even as they fail to acknowledge their own responsibilities. Still. If our military support is to be withdrawn - though CIA paramilitaries and drones might be some sort of stopgap - our diplomatic and aid support must remain robust. We must give visas to those Afghans who worked closely with Americans. Then we must pray that the so-called "graveyard of empires" finds its way forward so we are not forced to return.

• Keith Peterson, of Lake Barrington, served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State. He was chief editorial writer of the Daily Herald 1984-86.