U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan Doesn't Matter to Our Asian Allies

Hawks often try to justify military entanglement in a peripheral country by claiming that the U.S. cannot afford to “cede” it to the influence of the rival.

Michael Green and Gabriel Scheinmann claim that full U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan will “complicate” competition with China. The weakest part of their argument is their reliance on the bogus credibility argument that hawks so often use:

Third, the optics of a Taliban victory will have a powerful impact on U.S. credibility with Asian allies. The Obama …