To really understand what’s happening in Afghanistan requires one to have studied the nature of mass movements. The rapid advance of the Taliban across Afghanistan as US Forces withdraw has demonstrated that without decisive action like that shown by President Biden, the US would have had to remain in the country forever. Ultimately, the only way to defeat groups like the Taliban and Al Quaeda in the Middle East may be to pull out of those countries, and allow the people to develop a healthy disgust for the behavior of radicalized Islamist groups.

No country can defend its own borders unless its residents are willing to stand up for their nation. If an occupation by a foreign government results in a culture of fecklessness, where residents of a nation are dependent upon that foreign force to protect them, and there is little to no interest among the native population in signing up for national police and defense forces – as has been observed in Afghanistan, then ultimately you have to show some “tough love” and allow the people in that country to suffer the consequences of their inaction.

While the United States absolutely should take any steps necessary to help provide visas and green cards for those Afghans who demonstrated a desire to assist US forces by working as guides and translators, the population who sat on their hands and demonstrated no desire to either assist the US or to put up any real resistance to Taliban incursion as the US withdrew deserve to be left behind. So long as the population of the country is gripped by a cultural conservatism that includes people both complaining about the occupiers while simultaneously having no interest in helping to protect themselves from the Taliban, there is no way to ever achieve a successful resolution to the problem of Afghanistan.

This is brutal logic, and many Americans will have a hard time wrapping their head around this kind of thinking, but it’s a grim reality of human nature. In order to deal effectively with a situation like that in Afghanistan, you must be able to foment a kind of nationalist movement based upon ideals of social equality and public education, similar to what Ghandi achieved in India. If the native leaders of the country are not committed to ideals of social equality or public education, and are neither willing nor able to help promote that kind of nationalist ideal, then there is no hope of ever developing a native population that will be able to stand against a radicalizing force like the Taliban. The logic here is similar to that encountered in 12 step programs and how to deal with an alcoholic who refuses to stop drinking.  Sometimes you just have to learn to step over the bodies, and wait for the people to suffer enough so that they finally decide they’ve found their bottom and they are ready to take action.