Fight the War and Secure the Peace

Re “Mission Accomplished: Now It’s Time to Pull Out,” by Jay Taylor, Opinion, July 28: I find it astounding that this man used to be a top intelligence official in the Reagan administration. Taylor argues that the U.S. should pull out of Afghanistan because the Taliban and Al Qaeda organizations have been “smashed” and the members and leaders of those organizations have fled to neighboring countries. This may be true, but Taylor ignores a point that is so obvious, so basic: Al Qaeda and the Taliban may be out of Afghanistan now, but if the U.S. pulls out, they will surely return.

The fact is that postwar Afghanistan has a very unstable government, and if the U.S. were to pull out at this critical juncture, the country, or at least major parts of it, would sink into anarchy and civil war, providing fertile ground for the return of those radical elements that are, for the time being, biding their time in Pakistan and elsewhere. Any true intelligence expert would understand that after any military victory comes the responsibility of ensuring that the enemy doesn’t reemerge in the postwar chaos.

In 1945, the U.S. won a decisive victory over Germany and Japan, but we retained control over those countries until 1955 and 1952, respectively (and we still keep a military presence in those countries to this day). For Taylor to argue that because we won the war in Afghanistan we should now pull out is shockingly naive. To follow his advice would only mean that one day we would have to return to fight the war all over again.

Caleb Tinbergen

Beverly Hills