President Biden plans to remove all US troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11. A hint of what will result is the recent Taliban attack on a girls’ school, with 60 dead. The Taliban oppose educating girls and women – oppose it rather forcefully. And what will happen to the thousands of Afghans who helped us as translators, guides, and in other ways?

Some problems can be solved with a clever stratagem. Some can’t. The situation in Afghanistan can be summed up by three quotations:

• “If you leave, we will call you cowards; if you stay, we will call you occupiers.” – Anti-Taliban fighter to US officer in excellent film “Twelve Strong.”
• “You couldn’t fix something that was intent on staying broken.” – Brad Thor, “Hidden Order.”
• “You can’t practice nation-building in a place that isn’t a nation in the first place.” – Anon.