Leaving Afghanistan

That's what the Netherlands is doing officially today, after a four year military presence in the province of Uruzgan that according to most observers has been fairly successful, on its own merits and compared to the work of other Western forces in the country. If you believe this is already a lost cause (and war), the withdrawal is of course very timely. However, even the Dutch Social-Democratic party, the PvdA, which brought down the government last winter during discussions over a possible extension of the Dutch role in Afghanistan, did not use this argument. Instead, it argued that it was time for someone else to step up, that the Dutch had done more than their fair share. Sincere or not, they were thanked by a Taliban spokesman (no need to use "spokesperson" here), who in a rare interview with de Volkskrant last week called the PvdA decision "one of the most important decisions ever made for the Dutch government and people." There are many angles to this issue, and it is of course possible that the Western effort to stabilize Afghanistan will ultimately prove to have been in vain. What continues to bother me, however, is that this course of events was not inevitable. The withdrawal we're witnessing today is one of choice, not necessity. There was no popular groundswell against the Afghanistan mission among the Dutch public, no pressure from the military to relieve the strain on its resources (on the contrary, one might say). The choice was to go it alone, for selfish, domestic political reasons, and alliance interests be damned. The Hague pulled the plug right at the time a new U.S. president (one we profess to like and support over here) had begun to implement his own Afghanistan strategy (as opposed to the one of his unpopular predecessor) and had asked allies for support. It is some consolation that as of right now, it doesn't appear likely that last week's Taliban spokesman will get his wish, namely "that the PvdA will play a leading role in a new Dutch government."