A Wakeup Call on Afghanistan

The report on Reuters that Saudi Arabia is moving its diplomats out of Afghanistan is best seen as a wakeup call for the chaos into which Afghanistan is descending after President Biden surrenders the country to the Taliban. So inhospitable has it become that even the guardian of Islam’s holiest site, Mecca, is in a mood to depart. Reuters reports the Saudis are relocating their mission to Pakistan. We wouldn’t be surprised if other Arab embassies follow.Saudi Arabia’s move is no small thing. In the late 1990s, the kingdom became one of but three countries to recognize the Taliban rule over Afghanistan. Following the 2001 ouster of the Taliban, though, Riyadh partnered with America to reconstruct Afghanistan. The Saudis became a vital player in a country that strived to move away from extremism. After the Taliban’s return to power Riyadh hesitated, but eventually sent diplomats to Kabul. We relate this brief history to illustrate how far and how fast has been the collapse of the country America liberated and helped bring closer to modernity than it had ever had been. Following our departure, Saudi Arabia, the Czech Republic, and others are giving up on Kabul. The United Nations and nongovernmental organizations that deliver aid to Afghanistan suspended their activities after the Taliban banned women from working. Some remain active in Afghanistan, hoping to exploit the chaos for their own gain. But those — Communist China, Russia, Iran — are also increasingly hostile to both America and our allies in the region. Then there is neighboring Pakistan, which has long hoped to cultivate the Taliban as its cat’s paw. That tiger is hard to ride. Last week a terrorist group bombed a mosque at Peshawar, Pakistan, and the Taliban has widely been suspected as the culprit.Taliban leaders denied involvement after one Talib representative took responsibility for the terror attack. Afghanistan has a knack to insert itself into history. At the height of the Cold War, for one, it was where the end of the Soviet Union began. That period was when a small American contingent made all the difference, arming anti-Russian rebels — including with “Stinger” missiles that were devastating against Russ aircraft.Washington, however, soon lost interest, and the next big historic event — the attacks on New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania — emanated from Afghanistan. Our counterattack — begun with Green Berets on horseback — drove the Taliban from power, the country turned away from terrorism and started a march toward the current century. Until Mr. Biden threw up his hands, surrendered our bases and war materiel, and decamped.There are reports that the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, India, and other countries are now planning to leave Kabul as well. The rush out is a sign that these countries lack confidence in the Taliban regime and are concerned over the increasing insecurity at Kabul, the National Resistance Front’s foreign relations chief, Ali Maisam Nazary, tells the Sun. Meantime, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is planning to hold hearings on the Afghanistan withdrawal.None too soon, it looks like. Our own hope is that one of the topics of the Afghanistan hearings will be the tens of millions of dollars in cash transfers to the country, on which these columns have dilated. How much of this money is ending up in the till of the Taliban as Afghanistan becomes once again a fertile ground for extremists and to which America could yet be forced to return to clean up the chaos Mr. Biden left behind.

A Wakeup Call on Afghanistan

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