ASAP’s Annie Pforzheimer in Politico: U.S. should use the little remaining leverage it has over Taliban

Annie Pforzheimer, a retired career diplomat who served in Afghanistan and a member of the steering committee of the Alliance in Support of the Afghan People, writes in Politico that the U.S. decision to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by September surrenders most of the leverage we had over the insurgent Taliban.

“From a moral and strategic perspective, it makes no sense to politically abandon Afghanistan. Without any U.S. presence, and with no conditions or promise of a return, we can already predict that the Taliban will try to increase their territorial control and dictatorial rule, and other Afghans will arm and resist. There will also be ripple effects from the conflict: al Qaeda, ISIS and regional terror groups will have ample opportunity to regroup; it could also very well trigger a humanitarian crisis that drives masses of people across Afghan borders into United Nations-funded refugee camps. Instead of mustering the strategic patience to get the end game right and to ensure our reputation as an ally in an unfriendly part of the world, the U.S. is inviting regional chaos we’ll have to deal with (and pay for) anyway.

But, she writes, “there’s still some left to help prevent disaster.”

Check it out her full article here in Politico.