The 100th anniversary of its independence from Britain should remind us of our long history with the country and our obligations, says Simon Diggins
Simon Tisdall (Trump’s peace plan is a gross betrayal of Afghanistan, Journal, 20 August) is completely correct in his analysis of the US peace initiative in Afghanistan: it is all about enabling the withdrawal of US troops and little about the future of the Afghan people; “details”, such as the shape of the future government of the country, are, apparently, to be settled later.
This week saw one historic occasion for Afghanistan, the 100th anniversary of its independence from Britain, but the deal being negotiated in Doha more closely resembles the end of the Soviet engagement in 1989. Desperate to stop a war they were losing, the Soviets negotiated the end of combat operations in 1989 and withdrew the bulk of their troops. Three years later, under pressure from the west, “cooperation troops” withdrew; and two years after that, in 1994, the Najibullah regime itself finally collapsed, paving the way for the Taliban to take power in 1996. History won’t repeat itself exactly, but the precedent is not encouraging.
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