No-Win Policy for Afghanistan

The United States has been fighting the war in Afghanistan for more than eight years. That’s longer than U.S. participation in the Second World War, the Iraq War, and the Vietnam War. By the end of 2010, it will have surpassed the length of the Soviet war in Afghanistan. It has taken the lives of just under one thousand Americans, more than nine thousand others have been wounded, and it has cost more than $250 billion. Most important, the original goal of the mission has been achieved; al Qaeda’s safe haven in Afghanistan has been destroyed and its Taliban allies pushed from power.