We’re turning our backs on the lives we’ve changed in Afghanistan

Several years ago, I participated in a conference put on by the Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan (PPP), a joint initiative between the U. S. State Department and American private attorneys, started by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and continued by successor Hillary Clinton. We spent a week advising and teaching Afghan women lawyers and judges.   

The women were committed to not only improving the roles of women in the Afghan justice system, but also the advancement of the justice system itself. They were brave. They knew what they were doing was revolutionary and could change their country, but they also knew their work was violently opposed by the Taliban and others. They knew they could die.

Many criticize America’s intervention in Afghanistan as wasting American lives and accomplishing nothing. But how can one deny the power and potential of Afghan women becoming judges and lawyers and their potential to transform Afghanistan? Not only was it an enlightening breakthrough for the present, but it offered new opportunities for the future. Young Afghan women and girls saw these strong, successful women in the law and set aside their own fears. They affirmed for themselves that with their new security, even if it was at times precarious, they could be who they wanted to be. Of equal importance, young men and boys saw that women were not simply chattel, but were smart, capable and essential partners in their nation’s advancement.

These important developments will vanish in several months. The Taliban will likely close schools for girls and remove any woman in a position of authority or importance. Any resistance will be met with maiming or death. Many women will have to flee. Men who supported women’s progress will be killed, as well. Once again, women will be subjugated and abused. 

Our government chose this course of action knowing the real harm and lost progress that would occur. Yet, to distract the public from the inevitable losses, it pretended that the Afghan government could withstand the Taliban. As we now know, it couldn’t. 

Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) recent demand that any potential political settlement discussions with the Taliban and the Afghan people “must include having women at the table” is like the captain of the Titanic ordering the iceberg out of the way. The Taliban’s initial assurances to provide women’s rights within Islamic law are simply lies to give them time to entrench and secure control. The Taliban will force women back into subjugation.

Rather than mislead about the withdrawal and its consequences, the government should have been truthful. It was a difficult choice: Leave to stop the loss of American lives, but lose the reforms and progress, or remain and protect the gains at the cost of more American lives. Good, rational people support both sides, but they deserve to know the basis for the government’s decision and its implementation of that decision. 

To make matters worse, the implementation of the decision looks desperate and poorly planned. Supposedly, the withdrawal was for the safety of Americans. As we now see, the hasty exit did not protect Americans, but endangered them. There were no plans for a comprehensive withdrawal of those who needed to be rescued and many are still in Afghanistan. Had the Taliban been so inclined, we could have faced another hostage situation. Additionally, the secrecy and abruptness of the withdrawal guaranteed that the Afghan government would have no chance of resisting the Taliban. The defective implementation angers most Americans and will have very real consequences for Afghans, including the women we taught at the PPP conference. 

I personally appreciate both sides of this decision. When I was 12 years old, my father died while serving at a missile site in Okinawa. As the oldest son, I received the triangular flag from his coffin and shivered during the 21-gun salute. Each death of someone in service of our country is a catastrophic tragedy for family and friends of the departed. Some who served in Afghanistan are happy that no additional lives will be lost. Others are angry because all their work and progress will be for naught. It’s a tough choice. 

Often, America and its allies are in unique positions to prevent, minimize, or eliminate inhumane conduct and atrocities. We cannot be the world’s police, but there are times when our interaction can be harnessed for the greater good. 

There is substantial agreement that with a relatively small show of force by American and allied militaries, the Rwandan genocide could have been prevented. It’s likely some American lives would have been lost, but how do you weigh that against a genocide? 

True, the war in Afghanistan seemed to be never ending, but there were undeniable improvements. Even if nation building is not realistic or even desirable, changes in the lives of the people can be the source of further homegrown reforms and progress. As atrocities start to unfold in Afghanistan, we will have a more complete sense of what we have done. Did we abandon a hopeless quagmire, or did we cut down vines that had the chance of developing some extraordinary grapes? 

For many, withdrawal from a perpetual war will be viewed as a good result. I understand, but I keep remembering the faces of those brave Afghan women who were leading their country towards a more just and free nation. What about them?

Terree Bowers is an attorney at Arent Fox. He served as a war crimes prosecutor with the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal and a consultant with the Rwandan War Crimes Tribunal. He has helped to train Afghan, Haitian, and Sudanese attorneys. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the views of Arent Fox.