Deferred withdrawal

The Spanish defense minister in his first visit to the troops deployed in Afghanistan has repeated his Socialist predecessor's euphemisms about the war against the Talibans. In spite of the new governing party's electoral promise to call things by their name, at least in delicate matters, Morenés has said that the more than 1,500 Spanish soldiers deployed in the Central Asian wasp's nest will be taking part in "tactical operations," as if this bland term reduced the risks of the mission, or modified its perception by the Spanish public. Morenés has announced that the soldiers, contrary to the Zapatero government's predictions, will not begin their withdrawal until six months from now ? which makes sense in a war decisively influenced by the climate, the spring and summer seasons marking the height of Taliban activity.

Whatever the exact moment may be when the withdrawal begins ? Obama has given the signal for bringing the first soldiers back within a few months, in time to influence the presidential elections in November ? it is obvious that the Spanish contingent has more than complied with Spain's international commitments in Afghanistan, the most complex and dangerous (the casualty statistics make this clear) that our country has assumed. This mission, termed by the UN one of "stabilization and reconstruction" (never achieved) in which it was important for Spain to participate after the successive pullouts from Iraq and Kosovo, whose unfortunate political and diplomatic handling compromised our credibility as an ally.

Afghanistan, 10 years later, is now a conflict without a winner, and has caused breaches between Washington's European partners, and placed NATO on the edge of breakdown. The candidate Obama who, in 2008, called it a "just war" which his country had to win, is now desperately looking for a way out of this human and economic hemorrhage now disapproved of by his compatriots. In the eyes of the Talibans, never defeated and lately ever more audacious in their military and terrorist actions, the United States has raised a white flag in setting 2014 as the year of total withdrawal; at the same time proposing peace talks, the probable setting being Qatar. These talks have been in preparation for months now by top US officials, and, if they take place, will initiate the diplomatic rehabilitation of the Afghan jihadists.