Afghanistan – a lurch into more of the same

Joe Biden has taken the damned-if-he-does and damned-if-he-doesn’t decision to pull US troops out of Afghanistan after two decades. Critics predict civil war may erupt, lead to the collapse of the Kabul government and the struggling army; and al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups could re-establish havens within two years, using them as launch pads to attack the US. It will almost certainly be a disaster for the country’s 39 million people — in particular, its women, wiping out a