Sobotka's permanent war

The CR has been at war in Afghanistan for 14 years, even if the role of Czech soldiers is rather small. As far as we can tell, this makes it the longest war fought by Czechs since the Thirty Years' War ended in 1648. No end in Afghanistan is in sight. PM Bohuslav Sobotka told Právo yesterday before returning from a secret two-day visit to Kabul that Czech participation there will only make sense if it lasts until Afghanistan is stabilized. This is the same Bohuslav Sobotka who said in Nov. that we should learn from the case of Afghanistan that it isn't possible to export democracy. It's also the same Bohuslav Sobotka who told the Brookings Institution a month ago that to achieve long-term stability in Syria, it will require Assad to leave, which sounded a lot like exporting democracy. Sobotka has latched onto the U.S. concept of permanent war; we will remain in Afghanistan until it is stabilized, and it can never be stabilized, because we remain.