What lessons can the NATO draw from the mind-choking release of classified Afghanistan data by Wikileaks? According to columnist Arno Widmann of Germany’s Frankfurter Rundschau, it all boils down to choosing one of two options.
For Frankfurter Rundschau, Arno Widmann writes in part:
One thing seems certain now: There will be no peace in Afghanistan for the next few years and it’s sure that there will be no peace without the Taliban. The moment that seemed possible has long since passed – and it passed unused. Now there’s no way around the Taliban. Bombing them out of existence didn’t work and no one believes any longer that it could.
It is said that a withdrawal is unthinkable now because the Afghan people cannot be left in the hands of the Taliban. The publication of these documents makes it clear that this will be the case even three, four, or five years from now. So two conclusions can be drawn from these materials: A) We need much more time than was previously stated publicly to get the country under control. So we have to stay longer and with even more troops; B) We failed before. We won’t succeed in the years to come. So let’s get out as soon as possible.
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