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Feldman: I should have listened to my dad about Afghanistan

Photo by Jim Huylebroek of The New York Times / A Taliban fighter threatens a woman who was waiting to get access to the international airport with her family and others in Kabul, Afghanistan on Aug. 18, 2021. Photo by Jim Huylebroek of The New York Times / A Taliban fighter threatens a woman who was waiting to get access to the international airport with her family and others in Kabul, Afghanistan on Aug. 18, 2021.

By Noah Feldman / Bloomberg Opinion via Tribune News Service August 21, 2021 4 min read

The fall of Kabul reminds me of an argument I had with my father on Thanksgiving Day of 2001. The U.S. had invaded Afghanistan and swept away the Taliban. The question was what to do next.

My father, who taught international relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, learned Dari and went to Afghanistan in 1969, had a simple answer: U.S. forces should leave the country immediately.

I thought I knew better. “But then the Taliban will come back,” I objected.

“That’s possible,” my father acknowledged.

“So we need to stay to establish a functioning government,” I continued.