So it has come full circle. What started as an operation to eradicate al-Qaeda has ended two decades later with the return of its Afghan enablers to power. Rarely have so many lives and so much cash been spent on so little. It would be nice to think that US politics will learn from this debacle — and both parties are complicit. But the story is far from over. America may have quit this “forever war”, but it will go on. There will be little time for post-mortems as we come to grips with the implications of a rebooted Taliban.
一切都回到了原點。最初意在殲滅基地組織(al-Qaeda)的作戰行動,在20年后以庇護該組織的塔利班在阿富汗重新掌權而告終。在歷史長河中,很少有付出這么多的生命代價、支出這么多的資金,卻得到這么少結果的事例。認為美國政治將從這一失敗吸取教訓——兩黨都有過錯——當然是積極的思維。但故事還遠遠沒有結束。美國也許已經退出這場“沒完沒了的戰爭”,但戰爭會繼續下去。我們將沒有多少時間進行事后反思,而是要馬上開始分析塔利班卷土重來的潛在影響。