- local tribes were bribed into fighting Islamist militias
- Iraq’s powerful neighbor Iran desisted from providing major support to the insurgents in order to allow the Americans to withdraw
- terrorist groups abstained from escalation due to the lack of external support and the scarcity of their own resources
- Iraq quickly reestablished a strong security apparatus
- the US left about a third of its war-time personnel in Iraq in non-combat capacities
And everyone understands that the lull in terrorism is temporary, and that the frequency of attacks belies the notion that stable government is possible.

In Afghanistan, the opposite is true. NATO enjoys very little support among the tribal federations, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are providing resources to the Taliban, and terrorist attacks are growing in frequency and sophistication. The Taliban has excellent bases in Pakistan and sufficient funding from drug production. Karzai’s security forces are weak, and the US will not need to maintain large air bases after withdrawal.

After US forces go home, larger chunks of Afghanistan will fall to the Taliban and warlords, and more attacks will take place in Kabul.

But the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated further, with the Taliban assassinating Karzai’s brother, a provincial ruler. So far the Taliban are winning against the puppet government in Kabul, and that situation will only be worsened by improving ties with Saudi Arabia and a return to business-as-usual with Pakistan which previously balanced its cooperation with the Taliban by allowing the US to conduct some drone raids against their officials. The Russians remain the only party with a traditional dislike of the Taliban, but their influence in Afghanistan is small. The Taliban are thus not inclined to offer the White House any concessions that will enable the US to make a show of ‘withdrawing with honor,’ especially now that the UNSC has rescinded their status as a terrorist organization.

The UNSC decision creates a legal issue: what was NATO doing in Afghanistan for ten years if the Taliban are not terrorists? Certainly the Taliban hadn’t become less militant in recent years when the group emerged victorious against Western troops. It now appears that the United States invaded a relatively peaceful country whose government did not support foreign terrorism. Moreover, having recognized that the Taliban is not a terrorist group, the US still refuses to leave Afghanistan immediately and unconditionally.

Still, Muslims did not start pouring money into Afghanistan. They did not condemn the United States. The UNSC did not meet to discuss the normal wartime behavior which the liberals had declared criminal.

This attitude contrasts markedly with Muslim hysterics over Israel’s occasional killing of a few Arabs, or with the support extended to Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion. In the last case, America actively promoted the Afghani cause. In the first case, America provokes the Arabs by condoning their verbal and military attacks on Israel (Fatah receives American aid despite continual acts of terrorism against Jews). If the United States had supported Israel unequivocally, the Arabs would have been as indifferent to our operations in Gaza and the West Bank as they are toward Afghanistan.

In Iraq, the ruling establishment is also preparing for American withdrawal by forging closer ties with Iran.
Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan chose Iran over the United States because the ayatollahs stand with their friends firmly and avoid liberal rhetoric.

Afghani informers often give NATO troops false targets as a way to settle scores with their personal enemies. The soldiers acted in good faith, but lacking advanced training in hostage-release operations, they were not able to discern the proper targets during the fighting.

The army is so afraid of prosecution by the media that NATO soldiers had to resort to ghastly concealment of evidence.

If the war is just and sensible, then the Afghanis must pay the US the cost of fighting it, including cost of the lives lost there. If it’s not a viable war, just get out.

Foreign troops cannot secure Baghdad from suicide bombers, and have much less hope of prevailing in Kabul.

In its report on Goldstone’s allegations, IDF avoided taking a simple and unassailable position: yes, we did kill hundreds of Arab civilians in Gaza, just as American troops have killed non-combatants in Korea, Vietnam, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and many other places. They are collateral damage. We cannot and will not bend over backwards verifying our targets before every shot. If they do not like that, we can help them all cross into Jordan so that they make it a Palestinian state.

The assumption is wrong. The Taliban won’t take their defeat at Marjah as a problem. Unlike elected presidents, they think long-term, and they know that the Americans will withdraw, Marjah or no Marjah.

The real question is, what does it take for American soldiers to risk their lives for no cause?