The trouble with the freedom fighter paradigm, through which parts of the anti-war movement view Afghanistan, is that there are no freedom fighters to speak of there. The closest thing to it is a group of more or less brutal and thoroughly corrupt tribal warlords ruling over a feudal, ultra-misogynistic society.

Witness the Taliban's savage behavior: cutting off of noses, ears, and fingers for voting; throwing acid in women's faces for daring to show them in public; burning schools to keep Afghani youth indoctrinated in ignorance; etc. etc. ad nauseum. In the face of this reality it is absurd to continue with an anti-imperialist line of propaganda, as if the U.S. military were the source of Afghanistan's problems and its withdrawal the solution. It may not have the capacity to fix the situation there, yet it is hardly the enemy of the Afghan people that some portray it to be while ignoring the other side's barbarism.

Afghanistan will be a brutal place long after the U.S. military leaves (as it should, with the exception of Special Operations Forces to interdict Al Qaeda operatives in the region). Americans calling for withdrawal should be under no illusions with regard to this. Vague calls for continued humanitarian aid, which is not likely to be very forthcoming given the Taliban's extreme, militant xenophobia, should be replaced by a cold calculation of the situation and an acceptance of the fate of the Afghani people after a U.S. withdrawal.

Let Americans call for withdrawal but let us do so only after stomaching the reality- one way or the other, the consequences are going to be savage and bloody.