Afghanistan and the Kobayashi Maru Test [View all]

At the beginning of Star Trek II (arguably one of the best science fiction movies of all time and one of my personal favorite movies of all time) we’re introduced to the Starfleet “Kobayashi Maru Test.”

The scenario is as such:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Maru

We later learn that Kirk was famously the only cadet to have ever beaten the Kobiyashi Maru test; he did this by reprogramming the simulator and cheating.

But the test itself was meant to judge the character and decisions of cadets in facing a no-win scenario.

Afghanistan was our Kobayashi Maru test.

In 2001, we went in and toppled the Taliban government with relative ease. And yet we could only contain the situation, not permanently change it.

As long as we were there, we could hold the Taliban off.

But we were a stop gap, and the thing about stop gaps is that they’re by nature temporary solutions.

Unless we intended to permanently occupy Afghanistan, there would be no guarantee that it would fall once again.

But nobody wants us to permanently occupy Afghanistan, not the Afghans nor us.

And so at some point, we had to leave. It was only a matter of when.

And us leaving has harrowing implications for the Afghan people, especially women and religious minorities.

But I don’t think we could ever win, just as no previous occupying force could ever win.

It really, really sucks, but that’s a no win scenario for you. A true Kobayashi Maru.