In this essay for The Washington Post, written as 2019 peace talks with the Taliban collapsed and were revived, Elliot Ackerman argues that after 18 years of war, America's obligations to its Afghan partners don't end with a withdrawal, and that Afghanistan's government owes something in return.
A Dream of Skiing in Peacetime
Ackerman recalls a Tajik logistics officer nicknamed "Big Cheese," who spent a 2011 deployment dreaming of building a ski resort in the Hindu Kush after the war, and the promise the two men made to each other that Ackerman would visit if it were ever built.
Promises Made on Both Sides
Ackerman argues that 18 years of war created mutual obligations: America owes local allies, Afghan women, and soldiers of the Afghan National Army a stable peace rather than a retreat into civil war, while Afghanistan's government owes the sacrifices of its American partners an end to the corruption and double-dealing that have strained the relationship.
The Ghosts of the Paris Peace Accords
Ackerman warns that sidelining Kabul from direct talks with the Taliban, including offering prisoner releases without the Afghan government's consent, echoes Henry Kissinger's 1973 Paris negotiations that cut out South Vietnam, delegitimized its president, and paved the way for the fall of Saigon two years later.
Read the Original Article
This essay originally appeared in The Washington Post.