1. Hunt down the Islamic elements in Afghanistan that were involved in the 9/11 attacks and destroy them.
2. Impose an immediate trade embargo on that country — and then extend it to any other country that conducted business with them.
3. Withdraw U.S. recognition of Afghanistan as a nation — permanently. Establish a protocol where individual parts of the country could apply for recognition independently — under very specific conditions we establish. Each “nation” we recognize could be as large as a former Afghan province or as small as a village.
Item #3 is important because it has to include a harsh set of blunt expectations on our part. The goal would be to divide Afghanistan into a large number of independent, but highly dysfunctional, states. And our expectations have to be made clear up front: Each state has to be small enough that it can be destroyed beyond repair in a 48-hour military strike, if necessary.
Sorry — that’s THREE, not two!
At least you have an alternative in mind. On the other hand, assuming the US could have overcome huge international pushback, there’d be no guarantee that we wouldn’t have been involved for twenty years under your scenario.
The smaller states you describe would have been easy for the Taliban to grab one by one. And the only way to have prevented it would’ve been through continued American military intervention.
It’s easy to criticize, and there’s a lot that deserves critique, but I’m afraid that once 9/11 happened you were either going to sit back and do nothing or get involved in some sort of invasion that might have long-term negative consequences.