Afghanistan not finished with U.S.

OPINION:

As the fifth anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and the final U.S. military withdrawal approaches, the South Asian nation has all but disappeared from American political consciousness.

This shift in focus is understandable. After 20 years of war, thousands of American lives lost and trillions of dollars spent, Americans were exhausted and ready to put the country in the rearview mirror.

Yet the danger Afghanistan poses to America and the region has not receded.

Instead, Afghanistan has backslid into a haven for terrorism and a playground for America’s adversaries. Al Qaeda is rebuilding on Afghan soil. Our ally Pakistan is under mounting terrorist pressure. China is expanding its economic and strategic footprint. Iran is deepening ties with the Taliban.

While the United States disengaged, rival powers and extremist groups moved in. Start with the reason America entered Afghanistan in the first place: al Qaeda.

Reports indicate that Hamza bin Laden, Osama bin Laden’s son and heir to the al Qaeda network, has been rebuilding the organization from Afghan territory. The Taliban regime, which once sheltered the architects of 9/11, has shown neither the ability nor the desire to stop it.

We did not spend two decades dismantling al Qaeda’s sanctuary only to watch it quietly regenerate while the West looks away. The next major terrorist plot against the U.S. or its allies could once again emerge from Afghanistan’s mountains and border regions.

The consequences of the 2021 withdrawal are now destabilizing one of America’s most important regional partners: Pakistan.

Pakistan, a major non-NATO ally, has worked alongside successive American administrations in counterterrorism operations and regional security efforts for decades. Since the Taliban’s return, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants have used Afghan territory to launch cross-border attacks that have killed hundreds of Pakistani soldiers and thousands of civilians.

Islamabad did not create this crisis, but it is paying for it in blood.

That matters profoundly to the U.S. A destabilized Pakistan — nuclear-armed, politically fragile and strategically positioned between China, India, Iran and Afghanistan — would represent a major national security threat.

Washington should deepen intelligence cooperation, expand border surveillance support and provide the military tools necessary to disrupt terrorist networks operating from Afghan territory. President Trump and Congress should pursue that partnership now, before the situation deteriorates further.

Then there is the broader strategic reality, one Washington still seems reluctant to confront.

The Trump administration has rightly identified competition with China as the central geopolitical challenge of this century. Yet Afghanistan sits atop an estimated $1 trillion in untapped mineral reserves, including lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements essential to artificial intelligence, semiconductors and advanced weapons systems.

Whoever controls those supply chains will wield enormous economic and strategic power in the coming decades. China understands this. Beijing has signed agreements with the Taliban, expanded its diplomatic footprint, and, in May 2025, connected Afghanistan to its Belt and Road Initiative through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Every month, the United States turns its head and China tightens its grip.

Iran’s ties with Afghanistan now carry a different weight. Before the U.S. and Israel struck Tehran in February, Iran had expanded bilateral trade with the Taliban to more than $2 billion, restored full diplomatic relations and signed agreements granting Afghanistan access to the Chabahar port.

That relationship did not evaporate with the outbreak of war. With Iran’s government decapitated, its economy in free fall, and its regional allies weakened, Afghanistan may actually become more strategically valuable, not less, to whatever government emerges in Tehran.

Washington is fighting Iran on one front while leaving its eastern flank completely unattended.

There is also a moral dimension Americans should not ignore. Thousands of Afghans risked their lives because they believed American promises meant something. Interpreters, soldiers, civil society leaders and intelligence partners were hunted down, imprisoned or killed after the withdrawal.

Future allies around the world are watching closely. If America abandons those who stand beside it, fewer people will do so the next time it matters.

None of this requires another invasion or nation-building project, but it does require sustained engagement: a formal strategy to compete with China and Iran for economic influence in Afghanistan, counterterrorism resources to strike networks before they mature and treating Pakistan as the frontline partner it is, with the material support that entails.

For 20 years, Americans paid dearly to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a terrorist sanctuary and geopolitical prize for hostile powers. Today, al Qaeda is rebuilding, Pakistan is under siege, China is locking up strategic minerals, and Iran — even amid war — is tightening its grip on its eastern neighbor. Washington is treating all this as a closed chapter.

America may want to put Afghanistan behind it. Unfortunately, Afghanistan is not finished with us.

• Christopher Shays represented Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District in the House of Representatives from 1987 to 2009. Richard Swett represented New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District from 1991 to 1995 and served as U.S. ambassador to Denmark.