Summary

Brahma Chellaney| The Daily Star

Since toppling the Taliban regime in Afghanistan 14 years ago, the United States has been waging a nonstop battle against its foot soldiers.

Months after President Barack Obama declared that America’s “combat role” in Afghanistan was over, the U.S. and its allies continue to carry out airstrikes on Taliban positions regularly, while American special operations forces continue to raid suspected insurgent hideouts.

In October 2011, he announced that he was bringing “the long war in Iraq” to an end by withdrawing all U.S. troops.

In Afghanistan, the Obama administration has already missed the 2014 deadline, set in 2011, for withdrawing U.S. forces. And it has rescinded another self-imposed deadline, having scrapped its plan to halve the number of U.S. troops still deployed in Afghanistan – currently around 10,000 – by the end of this year.

The Taliban has already inflicted far more casualties among U.S. and allied forces than Al-Qaeda and ISIS combined. A total of 2,215 American troops have been killed in Afghanistan, and another 20,000 wounded, since 2001 .

Delaying a further drawdown of U.S. forces will be inadequate to convince the Taliban otherwise.