As you have surely gathered from my countless previous posts, far too numerous to hyperlink here, on this issue, I am a vociferous critic of “nation-building” – that most quixotic and misguided of monumental boondoggles … both as a concept and, particularly, as the utterly futile project which Washington has been unsuccessfully attempting to promote under the curious pseudonym of “counterinsurgency” in Afghanistan. Surely the horrifying events of the past several days – which have left four Americans dead and several others injured – must betray the fantastical impracticality of our arrogantly hubristic illusion that somehow our military forces could readily and exultantly remake this impoverished, war-torn, ethnically-riven, traditional society in America’s shining image.
This may seem an unsophisticated, if not positively atavistic, admission… but, I always thought that the principal role of soldiers was to engage in combat – indeed, to eliminate the enemy. And during a period of deployment abroad, I did not know that they were expected to dispense food and drink, sweep the streets, host Tupperware parties, conduct puppet shows for kids, chauffeur shoppers to the market and essentially lay the extensive socio-political infrastructure for a modern democratic state. But of course, our convoluted and paradoxical endeavor in Afghanistan defies conventional wisdom… if not logic, common sense, sound judgment, and reality as well. Indeed, despite the unconscionable casualty rate among our troops, it has often resembled less a military campaign than a philanthropic enterprise. Progress of the war is bizarrely measured in how many Afghan children are vaccinated and enrolled in school; and, the rules of engagement for our soldiers have, at times, been so restrictive that they can hardly fire at the enemy. We ludicrously sustain a corrupt, incompetent, and dysfunctional regime presided over by an ungrateful and treacherous kleptocrat who constantly and viciously bites our hand while we contritely kiss his ass. And, all the while, US security priorities – as well as, on occasion, the personal safety of our troops – are regularly subordinated to placating the cultural sensitivities of the host population… even some of the most extreme and antagonistic elements therein.
I completely understand the rationale of the much touted objective of “winning the hearts and minds”; yet, I am also on too well aware that this elusive and supremely ambitious aspiration is chillingly evocative of another protracted campaign where victory – in any ostensible measure – was tortuously unachievable. And, just as we were unable to win the hearts and minds in Vietnam, we are similarly failing in our current quagmire. Nor, am I certain that hearts and minds can ever be won by an army of occupation – even one so extraordinarily dedicated to a relatively benevolent mission as ours is in Afghanistan.
I profoundly regret the inadvertent burning of the Koran at Bagram and can certainly understand how this egregious error would be offensive to Muslims. But it was exactly that… an unfortunate mistake! And, as Col. David Lamm incisively observed on CNN this morning, the majority of Muslims apparently seem to accept this as there have not been violent riots elsewhere in the Islamic world in response to this incident… only in Afghanistan where the Taleban is exploiting it to foment civil unrest and anti-Western violence. In any event, I was astonished by the remarks of Ryan Crocker, the American ambassador to Afghanistan, who informed Candy Crowley on State of the Union yesterday, “there is an investigation underway and people will be held to account.” Uhhhmmm!!! If the soldiers who unintentionally incinerated the Koran will be made to answer for their catalytic blunder… well then those many policymakers in the White House, the Pentagon, NATO, and, the Embassy in Kabul should also be held liable for their disastrous mismanagement of the war. When the strikes on Afghanistan were launched in October 2001, the assault was intended to rid the country of the brutal Taleban regime which terrorized its subjects and provided a sanctuary for al Qaeda. Yet, ten years on – after exorbitant costs in American lives and increasingly scarce resources – far from being effectively neutralized, the Taleban is triumphantly resurgent… so aggressively and defiantly so, that Washington now feels compelled to negotiate with them. If the continuing and overarching strategic US aim in Afghanistan is to deprive al Qaeda a safe haven, why would we countenance the (presumable) ultimate incorporation of the Taleban in a prospective regime in Kabul… or, at the very least, its inclusion in a political condominium with Karzai… when it was these same zealots who threw open Afghanistan’s doors to al Qaeda in the first place? If anything, the Taleban is far more rabidly anti-American and now implacably opposed to US security interests in the region than it was when it consolidated its control over the capital in 1996. This ominous reality would suggest that an officially re-ensconced Taliban in Kabul (even as a minor component of a coalition government) would be only too eager to conspire with our enemies… and, indeed, the Taleban remains our enemy itself. And, yet, the United States sees no other option than joining it around an internationally recognized conference table in Qatar? Obviously, at some point, our decade long war in Afghanistan must have gone catastrophically awry. Perhaps, if our military forces had been permitted to fulfill their capacity as soldiers and not so incongruously dragooned into the job of social workers, the outcome would have been far less unsatisfactory.
Allow me to cite today’s CNN interview with Col. Lamm once more. In response to a question about the profusion of official apologies for the unintended desecration of the Koran, he also made another equally insightful comment: That particularly to the Taleban, the apology “is seen not as an apology but it is seen quite frankly as an admission of guilt and in many cases a sign of weakness.” If Washington must negotiate with the Taleban, at the very least, we should do so from a position of strength… not weakness.
And, the next time, we are visited by the idiotic impulse to undertake a mission of “nation-building” abroad, I would suggest that we depute Ty Pennington to colossally diversify the remit of his insipid reality television show. And, then he and his Extreme Makeover: Nation Edition crew can be dispatched to the faraway country in need of an overhaul and let the transformation begin. In fact, Washington should have sent him to Kabul as Ty’s efforts to remake Afghanistan could not have possibly proven any less successful than its own.
Cauthen's Commentary 