America’s Failures in Afghanistan Were Bipartisan

Gerald Seib: “The odyssey was thoroughly bipartisan, and in the end the retreat from it was widely supported by the public. In retrospect, it appears Americans lost their interest in Afghanistan when their leaders failed to keep showing that the exercise still was connected to its original and narrow purpose, which was to head off the threat of terrorism. Americans wanted victory over extremism, not an open-ended presence to make it less likely.”

“The war was started by a Republican president, the peak in troop strength reached under a Democratic president, the agreement to leave struck by another Republican president, and the departure decision carried out by another Democratic president. Every one of those presidents learned what history should have taught about Afghanistan, which is that the local fighter always knows he will outlast the foreign occupier.”