When Afghan insurgents laid waste to government buildings in Kabul last week, the US ambassador explained, perhaps in case we’d misunderstood the 24-hour siege, that “this really is not a very big deal”. A day earlier he’d lamented that “the biggest problem in Kabul is traffic”. Apparently not.
A week on, someone has blown up Afghanistan’s former president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, in the heart of the capital. This is a big deal. It shatters the idea that our enemies are on the ropes, and pushes the country closer to civil war.
[i]and pushes the country closer to civil war[/i]
No kidding! Afganistan carries the distinction of being the most screwed up conflict we have been involved in since Vietnam. GW Bush wanted to send a message to Al Quaida after the 9/11 by hitting them hard in Afganistan. Fine.
But then that morphed into a huge hunt for Osama (instead of covert ops) and then it morphed into plant democracy in a tribal land that has no desire nor need for it, and we are in the predictable mode of needing to rebuild things and secure women’s rights and all the other silly stuff we get bogged down in when we go to war…..er, I mean go to “police action”.
And so, now the Afgans are going to (again) start fighting among themselves with our 40,000 troops in the middle, doing what?
Another predictable outcome of a muddled military objective coupled with lack of will to go take care of business and then get out and move on.
For the life of me I can’t see why we insist on imposing our ideas of democracy on tribal cultures where it simply has no traction. It doesn’t work everywhere and there’s no reason why we should expect it to. It certainly hasn’t worked in most of Africa and the jury is still out whether it can work in the Arab world. Our foreign policy should be based on enlightened self-interest, leavened with a humanitarian desire to assist others during natural disasters, etc. Insisting on others adopting our form of governance is absurd. If our own house is in order, other less fortunate countries are free to follow our example if it will work for them, or not.
I doubt seriously that anyone has ever had an actual plan to install a democracy in Afghanistan. The idea was to terminate the use of the country as a base for terrorist adventures such as 9-11. Now we are simply trying to keep a lid on things. If we declare victory and withdraw , as we did in Vietnam, will be attacked again. Currently we are dealing with political calculations for how to time things for maximum political advantage. Meanwhile our soldiers are dying.
[i]I doubt seriously that anyone has ever had an actual plan to install a democracy in Afghanistan[/i]
Really? Go google the following,
[i]What Democracy for Afghanistan?
An Analysis Utilizing Established Norms and Five
Non-Western Case Studies
Charles L. Barry and Samuel R. Greene[/i]
[b]Currently we are dealing with political calculations for how to time things for maximum political advantage. Meanwhile our soldiers are dying[/b]
Could not have been said more accurately regarding both the Johnson and Nixon administrations during Vietnam!
The Afghans have been engaged in civil wars for centuries, with one or more warlords trying their damndest to kill each other, so none of this is news to anyone who really knows about the history of that region. Theirs is a tribal mentality; always has been, and always will be.
Seems China had a problem with warlords well into the 20th Century.
Lots of issues in (and around) Afghanistan, but I’d rather we got our act together and did this right than throw in the towel. Especially right now. Giving the radical part of Islam something to cheer and crow, and gather ’round about may not be the “peace dividend” we’ve been waiting for these 10 years.
[blockquote] Giving the radical part of Islam something to cheer and crow, and gather ‘round about may not be the “peace dividend†we’ve been waiting for these 10 years. [/blockquote]
It may not be what you and I are waiting for, but it would make the current chief executive happy. Fortunately it won’t happen unless he manages to get re-elected.
I don’t think we are wrong to be in Afghanistan, just that given the Global-political realities of the situation we are wasting effort attempting to build democracy there.