How to End the War in Afghanistan Correctly

By Preston Cooper

Today, the NATO summit in Chicago is expected to announce that, after over a decade of military involvement, international forces will hand over the primary responsibility for Afghanistan's security to Prime Minister Hamid Karzai and the Afghan government, with a pledge to withdraw all combat troops by the end of 2014.

This is a welcome move. The War in Afghanistan has become the longest major US war in history, surpassing the Vietnam War and the Iraq War by two years. The engagement has cost over $530 billion and nearly 2,000 American lives, not to mention countless Afghan civilians caught in the crossfire. Security gains have largely petered out since the first few years of combat. Recent incidents such as the massacre of Afghan civilians by a US soldier are evidence that things are tense between the US military and the nation it aims to protect.

It is safe to say that the War in Afghanistan has overstayed its welcome. In the same way that conservatism values finding a job versus being dependent on welfare, a country ought to have control over its own security rather than leaning on us for support.

However, the situation in Afghanistan remains unstable, and it is unacceptable for the Taliban or al-Qaeda to regain a foothold in the country. The forces that attacked us on September 11, 2001 are weakened but still very much alive today. For our own reasons, the US still has a vested interest in the security of Afghanistan, which is why we must stay involved, to a calculated degree, in the country.

This does not mean hundreds of thousands of troops patrolling the streets of Kabul, or dozens of helicopters beating the sky over the Khyber Pass. But it does mean ensuring that our relationship with the Afghan government remains friendly and intimate.

We must be as close with Afghanistan as we are with Israel. This means continued assistance to the fledgling government and military staff left in the country in a non-combat role. It is also critical to repair the frosty relations that have grown between our two nations as a result of the prolonged war. Ending combat will certainly help, but additional demonstrations of US respect for Afghanistan may be necessary.

I hope that the end of US involvement in combat will not be the end of US involvement in Afghanistan. The nation is an ally and a friend we cannot afford to lose.