It's time for Washington to work with the Taliban.
By Cassandra Vinograd Senior Staff Editor, Opinion |
When the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, it sealed Afghans' fate in more ways than one. |
It meant many Afghans would have no choice but to live under Taliban rule. It also meant they would struggle to meet their most basic needs, since the United States and its allies froze aid and cut Afghanistan off from the global financial system. |
It's probably safe to say that Washington is not happy that Afghanistan is now squarely in the Taliban's hands. But does that displeasure make it acceptable — or wise — to enable the country's complete collapse? |
That's the question Laurel Miller grapples with in a guest essay this week. She argues that America's refusal to work with the Taliban — the current and only government Afghans have — will virtually ensure Afghanistan's failure as a state. |
Afghanistan has been largely dependent on external support for years. It's a system and dependency the United States helped create. That support — and the nation's ties to the global financial system — effectively vanished overnight when the Taliban took power in August. |
Miller notes that the United States and its allies have made efforts to carve out exemptions to sanctions and release humanitarian aid — but the measures are insufficient. |
"The United States should draw a distinction between the Taliban as former insurgents and the state they now control," she writes. |
That may be an unappealing proposition to Western governments. But the choice must be made, she argues, laying out how best to move forward. |
Acknowledging the reality is far different from condoning it. And Afghanistan's population is running out of time. |
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