Bacevich in Globe: Outrage in Afghanistan
Andrew Bacevich, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, said that the U. S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was a compromise with moral consequences.
Bacevich made the case in a September 23 column in the Boston Globe entitled “An Intolerable Outrage in Afghanistan.” It was written in response to a New York Times investigation of the sexual abuse of boys by Afghan police officers.
From the text of the column:
Andrew Bacevich, emeritus professor of history and international relations at Boston University, says the situation highlights the unacknowledged reality of current US policy in Afghanistan.
“The military’s purpose is to restore sufficient order to enable us to depart without having to acknowledge defeat,” he says. “And looked at through that lens, the warlord or police chief or militia commander who is best able to assert order becomes our ally, regardless of any personal predilections. This terribly sad and ugly story suggests the moral compromises we have made simply to enable us to get out.”
You can read the entire column here.
Bacevich is the author of Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country (2013). Learn more about him here.