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March 14th, 2025 | 11:56 PM ET

Is Afghanistan A Lost Cause for America? Observations from One of the Last Americans Out

Taliban security personnel sit along a street in Faryab province on March 10, 2024. (Photo by Atif ARYAN / AFP) (Photo by ATIF ARYAN/AFP via Getty Images)
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Posted: April 24th, 2024

By Dave Pitts

Pitts is a senior national security executive, board member, and advisor. His background includes great power competition, global affairs, counterterrorism, and special operations. Pitts served as the Assistant Director of CIA for South and Central Asia, Chief of National Resources Division, senior leadership positions in the Counterterrorism Center, and led CIA’s two largest Field Stations. He is a co-founder of The Cipher Brief’s Gray Zone Group.

SUBSCRIBER+EXCLUSIVE EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — More than two years after its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the U.S. still does not have a clear way forward in the country, which means that two decades of investment and sacrifice by the U.S. and its allies – and two decades of gains for Afghans – seems to have disappeared almost as if we’d never been there.

Today, Afghans continue to suffer under a brutal regime. Millions of Afghans have been displaced, women and girls have no access to education, the country is facing humanitarian and economic crises, and instability and the potential for terrorism create legitimate concerns across the region as well as in Europe and the United States.

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Categorized as:Middle East ReportingTagged with:

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