Capitol Hill Briefing 

# The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan 

##### Watch the Event 

Download:

[ 

Video 

](https://fastly-unsigned-us-east-1-prod.brightcovecdn.com/media/v1/pmp4/static/clear/6039378657001/e137c05b-9522-41bf-8b88-74df1fe8ae6f/c0124b3e-76ff-44ea-ad9c-6c88e3af0a43/main.mp4) 

[ 

Video 

](https://cdn.cato.org/archive-2009/hb-09-25-09.mp4) 

[ 

Audio 

](https://cdn.cato.org/archive-2009/hba-09-25-09.mp3) 

Join the conversation on X using [\#CatoEvents](https://x.com/hashtag/CatoEvents). Follow [@CatoInstitute](https://x.com/catoinstitute) on X to get future event updates, live streams, and videos from the Cato Institute.

Date and Time 

September 25, 2009 12 - 1 PM EDT 

Location 

B-369 Rayburn House Office Building 

Share This Event 

##### Featuring 

Featuring **Malou Innocent**, Foreign Policy Analyst, Cato Institute, and co-author of “Escaping the ‘Graveyard of Empires’: A Strategy to Exit Afghanistan”; and **Ted Galen Carpenter**, Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute, and co-author of “Escaping the ‘Graveyard of Empires’: A Strategy to Exit Afghanistan.” 

Nearly eight years after the fall of the Taliban regime, Afghanistan struggles under the most brutal circumstances: corrupt and ineffective state institutions, thousands of miles of unguarded borders pervasive illiteracy and poverty, and a dysfunctional international alliance attempting to provide security for the country. Can “nation building” in the midst of a bloody insurgency succeed? What constitutes “success,” and what price should we be willing to pay for it? Does the United States have a compelling strategic rationale for remaining in Afghanistan?

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).