"If you want to get your B.A. in Politics, you need to come to my home state of Illinois. If you want to get your Master's degree in Politics, you'd better go to Louisiana. But if you want to get your Ph.D., you're gonna have to go to New Mexico."
-- United States Senator Everett Dirksen --
What would somebody from New Mexico say about the U.S. failure in Afghanistan?
I was an independent political consultant in Santa Fe for over two decades. I worked on political campaigns on all levels and for all three branches of government. I am an accredited expert witness in Federal Court.
Washington made the same two basic mistakes in Afghanistan that it made in Vietnam.
1. "He´ll be leaving soon." If you want to undercut somebody, spread that rumor.
I saw that ploy dozens of time in New Mexico; it was always successful.
When the leaving-soon rumor is not a rumor but a fact acknowedged by everyone, the undercutting is multiplied to stratospheric levels. Zero power is the result.
Zero.
Case study: Henry Kissinger in the Vietnam Peace Talks. For months he strutted in a French chateau before worldwide TV cameras. In truth, he had nothing to negotiate. Do we get out now or do we get out later?
Henry just didn´t get it. Neither did Trump, Nor Biden. Nor did England with Brexit and the European Community. The list goes on and on...
2. Concrete, tangible rewards in the present versus promised political rewards in the future.
The U.S. freed thousands of terrorists from prison in exchange for promises from the Taliban not to let Afghanistqn become a center for terrorists. In good and true negotiations, concrete present rewards are exchanged for concrete present rewards, not verbal future ones.
The same thing happened in Vietnam.
In a word: Washington does not know how to negotiate. In politics it has yet to earn a high school diploma much less a B.A.