First, know thyself. Before adventuring on foreign fields, be sure about what you’re at least trying to do. “We” in the west were not spurred to go into Afghanistan out of concern for the Afghans in 2001, and nor, 20 years later, are we withdrawing because of the Afghans either. Domestic American concerns—revenge in 2001, war-weariness in 2021—have driven everything, as they are wont to do in a democracy. That’s now crystal clear. Clear, too, is the fate of an unlucky people making the switch between occupation and joyless, brutalising theocracy.