A version of this story appeared in the daily Threat Status newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive Threat Status delivered directly to your inbox each weekday.
OPINION:
Last week marked four years since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan — four years of isolation, repression and lost opportunity.
Afghanistan today is a nation cut off from the world, its economy in ruins, its people demoralized. The progress of two decades — in governance, education, women’s rights and civil society — has been rolled back in a matter of months.
The collapse was not inevitable. It was the result of an incomplete process, one that began with promise but was never finished. In February 2020, President Trump brokered the Doha Agreement with the Taliban, an ambitious framework to end America’s longest war. The deal contained two main pillars: the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan and the launch of intra-Afghan dialogue to create an inclusive government that respected human rights, women’s rights and democratic choice.
The first was carried out. The second was not. When U.S. troops left in August 2021, the political settlement envisioned in Doha had not been achieved. The Taliban seized Kabul by force, dismantled the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and reimposed policies that exclude women from education, restrict media freedom and silence dissent.
Today, only Russia recognizes the Taliban as Afghanistan’s government. The rest of the world has withheld recognition, unwilling to endorse their authoritarian rule. The country is now one of the poorest on earth. The United Nations estimates that more than 28 million Afghans — two-thirds of the population — need humanitarian assistance. Unemployment is near total in some sectors. Millions of Afghans have fled abroad, only to face mass deportations from Iran and Pakistan.
Why it matters to the U.S.
The United States invested enormous resources — financial, military and human — into Afghanistan over 20 years. More than 2,400 American service members gave their lives. More than 66,000 Afghan soldiers and police officers died fighting alongside them. Trillions of dollars were spent to build a state that could stand on its own.
Afghanistan was not just a battlefield; it was a strategic partner. Its location at the crossroads of South and Central Asia made it vital to counterterrorism, intelligence-sharing and regional stability. Abandoning Afghanistan now risks creating a vacuum that extremist groups could once again exploit, destabilizing the entire region.
President Trump’s unique role
Since taking office for a second term, Mr. Trump has demonstrated leadership and a capacity to mediate conflicts others considered intractable. His recent efforts to facilitate dialogue between India and Pakistan, Cambodia and Thailand, and Armenia and Azerbaijan have been acknowledged and recognized internationally.
Afghanistan should be next. Mr. Trump has the credibility to return to the Doha framework, a process he initiated, and bring all Afghan stakeholders back to the table. This would not mean military intervention. It would mean political engagement: Convene exiled Afghan leaders, civil society activists and the Taliban for renewed talks; involve regional powers (including Qatar, Turkey and Gulf States ) to guarantee implementation; and set clear benchmarks for rights protections, electoral processes and international reintegration.
The moral obligation
The United States owes this much to the Afghan people. For two decades, they believed in the promise of partnership. They voted in elections, built businesses, educated their daughters and embraced democratic norms under extraordinary conditions.
Now, those gains are vanishing. Afghan girls have been banned from secondary school and universities. Women have been forced out of most jobs. Journalists work under constant threat. The country’s brightest minds — engineers, doctors, entrepreneurs — are scattered in exile.
A renewed peace process could reverse the tide. It could produce a transitional power-sharing arrangement that allows for internationally monitored elections, protection of rights and the gradual normalization of Afghanistan’s global standing.
Why now?
Four years is long enough for isolation to harden into permanence. The longer Afghanistan remains under unrecognized, repressive rule, the harder it will be to build consensus for change.
We cannot allow much more time to pass without a serious, American-led diplomatic initiative.
Mr. Trump has an opportunity few leaders ever get: to finish what he started, correct the course of history and prove that American commitments mean something even after the troops have gone home.
• Shahmahmood Miakhel is a former governor of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. He previously worked for the United States Institute of Peace and the United Nations.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.