Jonathan Steele: The Soviets Showed the Way to Leave Afghanistan

Nato's decade-long military intervention in Afghanistan will soon be over, but western governments will continue their generosity to that benighted country by maintaining their lavish aid programmes for many years to come. That is the reassuring message that was meant to go out from Nato's just-concluded Chicago summit.

 

With the new French president determined to get his combat troops out by the end of 2012 and two-thirds of the American public in favour of an early withdrawal of theirs, President Obama wanted to suggest that he is listening. So the summit trumpeted the "transition" to Afghan forces while seeking a commitment from Nato members to go on paying the Afghans long after the alliance's own troops have gone.

 

At the back of many Nato officials' minds is the Soviet Union's Afghan experience. Propaganda about a Soviet humiliation is giving way to awareness that the Russians pulled out in good order and the government of Najibullah, whom they left in charge, survived for three more years. When it collapsed 20 years ago, it was not because of the insurgents' prowess but because Moscow stopped delivering cash, fuel, and weaponry. Nato wants to avoid a similar outcome.

 

But there are key differences, summed up in two words not much heard in Chicago: talks and ceasefire...