To stay or not to stay Afghanistan puzzle

We became entangled in Afghanistan during the 1980’s, using the Afghanis as clients in the Cold War conflict with the USSR. We handed out loads of money and lots of weaponry to any warlord or insurgent commander willing to enlist in our disagreement with the Soviets. In doing so, we became another nation in the long list of nations that have attempted to subdue the region known as Afghanistan.


Our concern for Afghanistan and its populace decreased markedly when the Soviets decided that The Red Army had better places to expend ammunition and to lose equipment and men than in the mountains and deserts of South Asia. We essentially stood aside and monitored the civil war that destroyed most of the Afghani infrastructure not already laid waste by the Soviets. In a region of the world that had long had no stabilizing factor beyond a common and fundamentalist form of Islam, it was all but inevitable that the rapid descent back to tribalism and militant, primitive Islam would be the end result.

We found ourselves under attack in 2001 by Islamic fundamentalists operating from sanctuary in Afghanistan, now sliding ever more toward the Afghani mullahs’ view of a new caliphate. When sufficient trail tying Al Queda to the attacks upon the Pentagon and the World Trade Center had been proven, we demanded the ruling Taliban hand over the men who planned, funded, and ordered the attacks. The Taliban refused and we invaded. We were suddenly on the same trail trod by the armies of Alexander and the British Empire. We’ve been actively engaged in land warfare with some facet of Afghani culture or religious cult since then.

We’ve installed an incredibly corrupt puppet government that has limited pubic support and no cohesive police or military organization outside the capital city. We’ve managed to capture and imprison many possible Al Queda members at our own private Devil’s Island resort carved out of Guantanamo Naval Base on the island nation of Cuba. We’ve allowed an administration to disregard our Constitution, to use torture as a routine interrogation method, to use fear as a means of maintaining its power base, and to funnel vast portions of the U.S. treasury to corporate cronies for their part in sending private armies and contractors to staff a war that the public would not support if required to take part. And this war, back-burnered so that its architects could pursue their own dreams of empire, and military glory they refused to earn when it was their turn, has smoldered at its own pace; costing American and NATO allies lives, costing Afghani lives while largely being ignored by our populace but still a factor in the bitter division that now exists between the American left and the American right.

The divide today is as great a gulf as existed during the VietNam war. The degree of animosity is equally as great. The divide has been building, really, since VietNam, a conflict ended but never resolved internally in this nation. The Bush decision to invade Afghanistan in order to capture or kill Osama bin Laden was one I supported. Whether the enemy is a nation or a cult, no enemy can be allowed to attack our embassies, our naval vessels, our troops in garrison, or our nation’s infrastructure and citizens. Unfortunately, not all our citizens understand that national security sometimes involves the application of deadly force to enforce or bring about national policy decisions.

The left, many of them uninvolved in the conflict of VietNam, are collectively too willing to believe that use of force by nations is never necessary if sufficient negotiation takes place. They want to believe that everyone is as peaceful in intent as are they. They are often champions of demagogues such as Noam Chomsky, supporters of politicians such as Dennis Kucinich and Cynthia McKinney. They want peace on earth and believe that everyone else does as well. They are willing to surrender territory, abandon allies, allow border integrity to become a joke in pursuit of the American left’s multi-faceted, please everyone if possible, platform.

The right, is now equally fragmented but into fewer segments. The GOP base now consists of mainly the religious right and values voters arrayed against homosexuals, abortion, immigrants, and enthralled to free-market, laissez-faire corporations and financial houses. The rest of the right is now primarily the mob of “tea baggers,” quasi-libertarians, who are oriented around the 2nd and 10th amendment, opposing all taxation, and amped on hatred of Obama. This makes them the party of choice for many neo-Nazi and Christian identity groups. The right, collectively also views the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as righteous and religiously justified. The most extreme members of this base are as opposed to secular music and to women’s equality as are the members of the Taliban. Our own American Taliban is all too willing to dispose of our republic in order to launch their own theocracy. If they ever succeed they will be as viciously exclusive and violently fundamentalist as are their brothers in Afghanistan.

Our political practice, now, seems to consist of the Democrats failing to be cohesive enough to take advantage of their control of Congress and the White House; while the Republicans spend all available energy and immense pools of lobbyist money making every effort to block any legislation not originating in their C Street religious warren. They have taken over their apartment complex filled it with men who scream for morality from everyone but them. They are men who believe that their deity wants them to succeed and thus any means to amass wealth and power are sanctified. If not in power, the GOP spends every waking moment trying to find a means to overturn and invalidate the election of candidates from other parties. We’ve allowed a morass of greed, malfeasance, corruption, and hatred to bring our government to a third-world nation status.

This gulf, of our political parties making and our amplification, now prevents us from dealing with Afghanistan properly.

We will eventually extract our troops from the Bush II Crusade in Iraq. That war has beggared our country and cost us much good will worldwide. When we leave, Iraq will once more fall into civil war as the Sunni and Shia try to eliminate each other while proclaiming Moslem brotherhood.

Afghanistan is imo unwinnable until there is an Islamic reformation which reaches Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the WTFistan nations. Islamic fundamentalism and tribalism joined at the hip will never allow a modern, stable nation. Pakistan is waiting to fly into multiple pieces, just as it has been since the British left. The only real change now is the presence of nuclear weapons in Pakistan. They are the joker in the deck, ready to be sold to any Islamic nation or cult that has enough money and enough hatred.

We need to decide when to leave Afghanistan. Do we shift the men and women now in Iraq to Afghanistan? Do we waste another decade’s troops and money trying to rebuild a nation that has never really been a nation?

I’ve heard too many people from the right say that we owe a modern nation to the Afghanis. They maintain that we must somehow enforce equality for women in a nation that values livestock more highly. They demand we put a democratic government in place and assure its stability and strength before leaving. Such is unlikely to happen.

I’ve heard too many people from the left claim that we need to leave immediately so that we will no longer be killing civilians, no longer wasting money in a war the public does not support. There are far too many on the left who fail to understand what I consider to be crucial. Islam views itself as the culmination of Abramic faiths. The Imams, ayatollahs, mullahs, all expect Islam to triumph over all other faiths. Some of them are willing to wait centuries, if necessary. Others are not, but are willing to roll civilization back to the level of the 7th century CE in order to advance their faith and destroy any infidels who do not accept conversion. Of course, Christianity has already tried the “conquer, convert them, or kill them” approach. It should be apparent to everyone that there is unlikely to be any great homogeneity of faith in the future.

My opinion, for what little it matters is not complex.

We are highly unlikely to achieve any long-term modification of cultural or religious values and practices in Afghanistan or Pakistan. We are unlikely to put in place a government acceptable to anyone outside the Capital city. We are unlikely to catch or kill bin Laden except by extreme stroke of fortune.

As with Iraq, what becomes of Afghanistan ultimately depends upon the Afghanis.

We should begin to reduce our troops on the ground while maintaining as much air cover and surveillance as possible. UAVs can and should be used extensively.

We should bring our troops into a central, defensible base and begin staging the withdrawal of men and materiel. Keep sufficient combat troops to defend and hold that ground and that only.

Inform the Afghan government that they are now responsible for their own police and military pay, training, equipage, and utilization.

While doing this, announce and hold a national referendum on one single question.

“Shall the U.S. implement a national service requirement of all 18-26 year old citizens in order to raise sufficient manpower to continue to provide military support in Afghanistan and Pakistan?”

Let the public vote by either committing their lives and those of their children or by refusing to do so.

That may be the most decisive and most representative answer obtainable.

I know how I think the question will play out. I remember who went to VietNam and who didn’t. I think I know the answer to how committed the right wingers actually are when they get to pay the price.

Vote, anyone?