Use Russian Taliban bounties story to exit Afghanistan

The timing of unsubstantiated reports of Russian bounties paid to the Taliban last year to kill US soldiers is curious. It comes as we’re in the midst of a troop withdrawal leading to a complete end to US presence there next May. That exit from Afghanistan is twenty years in the making. It recognizes Afghanistan has no connection to America’s national security interests. It even represents the truth that the Afghan war begun October 7, 2001, should never have been fought and the hundreds of thousands killed, including 2,382 US soldiers, were unwarranted and needless.

The media, the congresspersons, the military and the intelligence services pushing this questionable narrative, appear determined to derail the urgent, long overdue end to our Afghan war. If they really are concerned about saving US lives and treasure they should use Russian bounty reports, even if true, to admit it’s time to end our two decade war to control a desolate but geopolitically prized country that can never be conquered.

While the Russian Taliban bounty reports are unsubstantiated, US military support for Osama bin Laden’s Mujahedeen, which helped kill 15,000 Russians during Russia’s failed 1979 invasion of Afghanistan, is absolute fact. We gloried in the billions we funneled to bin Laden, until he turned on America, knocking down the World Trade Center, killing 2,800 US civilians.

There is no upside to US wars of revenge and conquest except for the proponents of those wars who become rich and powerful waging them. Horrified that the end is near, they’ve seized on an old, unverified report of Russian interference to distract America from the task at hand…ending our senseless, failed and utterly wasteful Afghan war. Don't let them do that.