Pakistan, Sept. 21 -- On August 31, 2021, the United States did something it had not done in Kabul since the closing days of the Soviet war: it shut its embassy and moved its Afghanistan policy elsewhere. The soldiers were gone, the diplomats followed, and a country that had consumed American presidencies, fortunes and lives was gradually pushed out of Washington's daily field of vision.

Five years later, the Taliban are asking the Americans to come back.

Not the Marines. Not Bagram. Not another counter-insurgency campaign with a new acronym. They want diplomats, investment and an American flag over an embassy in Kabul. Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi has publicly pressed Washington to restore its diplomatic presence. Ronald Neumann,...