Right way?

The current edition of Time magazine asks on its cover, “What happens if we leave Afghanistan?” Accompanying the question is a gruesome photograph of a beautiful young girl whose nose and ears were cut off by an abusive husband she tried to escape.

The current edition of Time magazine asks on its cover, "What happens if we leave Afghanistan?" Accompanying the question is a gruesome photograph of a beautiful young girl whose nose and ears were cut off by an abusive husband she tried to escape. The photo seemingly answers the question.

The world, the West and particularly the United States left - actually, abandoned - Afghanistan once before. After a Soviet invasion in 1979, Afghanistan became a distant battlefield of the Cold War. The Soviets departed after a decade. As the proxy battle waned, so did international concern in a nation made destitute by civil war.

Into this vacuum came the Taliban and its horrors. Afghanistan became a sanctuary for like-minded extremists and a training base for terrorists, one by the name of Osama bin Laden. The U.S. might have been done with Afghanistan after 1989, but Afghanistan was not done with the U.S.

Recently, according to eyewitnesses, Taliban gunman massacred 10 members of an eye-care team - six Americans, one German, one Briton and two Afghans. In a claim of responsibility, the Taliban said the victims were spies on a mission of conversion.

President Barack Obama has pledged to begin pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan next July.

An American departure from Afghanistan is inevitable. The massacre and the Time photo are haunting reminders, however, of what will almost certainly happen in Afghanistan if the United States leaves in the wrong way.