Cassi Creek:
We see
repeated demands that we remain involved in Afghanistan in order to force
change in their social and cultural structures so that violence to women and
children is eliminated.
Afghanistan
will fall prey to a returning Taliban whether we stay in country another 6
months of 60 years. Violence toward
women and children will continue to take place in our schools, places of
business, in our streets, and in our homes.
We may think we can affect change in the manner women and children are
viewed and treated. However, the National
Rifle Association and the religious fundamentalist/evangelicals are as
committed to preventing social and cultural change as are the Taliban. We can’t save Afghanis until we can save
Americans.
Cassi Creek:
In World War II,
we fought to win and control landmasses that allowed us to deny their raw
materials and usefulness to the enemy forces.
Victory was defined by the surrender of one nation or alliance to
opposing forces. Territorial gains
marked progress. In VietNam, the cause
for conflict was ideological and no clearly defined victory existed for the U.S.
despite the presence of a clearly defined defeat. We pretended that we mark victory by “winning
hearts and minds.” In fact, neither
populace, North or South, wanted us there for any purpose beyond providing guns
and other hardware.
This is the
situation we now face in Afghanistan. We
were not invited to come and stay. They
will take what hardware we provide and welcome any form of bribes and
payoffs. But we will not win their
hearts and minds. The distance and
difference between our world view and theirs is too great. While we have tremendous technical
superiority and highly cohesive, well-trained soldiers, it actually appears
that “they have us by the balls. If we
have to be ever mindful of cultural and religious limitations, our chance of
defeating an irregular force, sheltered by the populace and able to avoid cultural
booby traps is next to none. We’re
combating culture overlaid with a fundamentalist religion – rather like our
American Civil War.
Cassi Creek:
There is no
answer beyond avoiding becoming embroiled in Afghanistan, Pakistan, or any
other tribal nation whose army and other governmental agencies are dominated by
religious fundamentalists. Those wars
never end; rather like our American Civil War.
It’s time to leave this war to the historians who will
decide what was and what should have been.
Build the fallen troops a monument and let those who returned alive get
on with their lives. Learn the lesson we
should have carried forward from VietNam.
“Hear the voices
of them all calling softly from the wall,
"Please
remember us!”
There is no other
answer hidden here" *
* (From Requiem - Voices in the Wall - S Lenon 1992)
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