n e u f n e u f: western leadership is incapable of doing the right thing

28 October 2009

western leadership is incapable of doing the right thing

[click image]

As you know, I have thought that ousting the Taliban from power in Afghanistan has been the right thing for the wrong reasons, and I have watched like a hawk for ways to maintain the good and diminish or abolish the bad in this mess. I believe that if we, not just the United States, but every country around the world, just stood guard over the people and sent in experts by the thousands to build a solid infrastructure and establish the right institutions for the management and maintenance of them, that we could all then happily leave Afghanistan to Afghanistan and stop worrying about the maniacs seizing control again.

No military can do this. They might be trained to stand guard, to not do this jackass running after attackers, but simply guard population centers from the depredations of Taliban bullying, while their society is made strong. But the whole concept is not possible. It would involve letting Afghanistan have Afghanistan. It would involve leaching all the profit out of being in Afghanistan. It would involve selflessness in the service of otherfullness. It's impossible.

[Peter B. Collins interviews Peter van Agtmael on Afghanistan....]

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