If some policy benefits your country most, you should, within moral bounds, pursue it. If your enemies benefit most, you should avoid it. I'd be curious to learn what answer proponents of America leaving Afghanistan — conservative or liberal — would give to the question, "Cui bono?"

The withdrawal has already cost us in a single day more service members' lives than we lost on any one day in Afghanistan since June 2014, seven years ago. The number of American servicemen killed in Afghanistan per year from 2015 to 2020 is respectively 22, 9, 14, 14, 21 and 11. No one can seriously argue that we are leaving Afghanistan because of high American casualties. So, while America doesn't benefit at all from leaving Afghanistan, it does get hurt. The damage to the reputation of America — as an ally and as a strong country — is not easily overstated.

#RightAndFree #America #Afghanistan #Withdrawal #CuiBono #WhoBenefits