“They’re right and we’re wrong.  We’ve done about all we could for Karzai and his cronies and its time to cut losses (as we should have done in Vietnam).

“What we’ve mostly shown in the ten years of our efforts and sacrifices, which on the whole have been pretty good, is that Afghanistan is a place on the map and not a coherent country.  If it’s ever to be run as most in the west think a country should be run, the Afghan people collectively are going to have to decide to abandon tribalism and traditionalism and do it themselves.

“We should do what DeGaulle did in Algeria: declare ourselves the winner and go home.”

Contact Michael Corgan, 617-353-3553, mcorgan@bu.edu