So let me get this straight: we ally ourselves with a warlord known for killing 50,000 civilians when he ruled Kabul, for tolerating the rape of children by his soldiers, and for dealing quantities of drugs Noriega could only dream of, and are now supposed to be surprised that our little experiment is crumbling away. Karzai is said to have dispatched the national army, but they may have a tough time against Dostum's freshly minted Russian toys (courtesy of US tax dollars). American forces will undoubtedly be required to assist -- assuming guarding the oil wells isn't too important.
Nation-building is an admirable task, but anyone who thought we properly equipped ourselves to do it surely has to feel silly now. This isn't post-war Germany, whose people were already accustomed to centuries of relative law & order, industrialization, and so on. I don't doubt the power of our great nation to work miracles, but the way the thousands of warning signs emanating from the East -- granted, not broadcast on Fox News -- were ignored points to serious mishandling and irresponsibility.
Posts: 1839 | Registered: May 1999
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Eh, we had more important things to worry about than Afghanistan - like bringing democracy (a.k.a. anarchy) to Iraq, defending against nonexistant WMDs, angering allies, and inciting terrorists.
Seriously though, there's not much surprising about this. The Afghans have had these problems for decades - the U.S. can't just go in and make it go away just like that, as much as we'd like to.
Posts: 2432 | Registered: Feb 2001
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No, we could have done better. Leave enough divisions in there that engineers can start building real infrastructure safely. Start an education campaign among the villages prone to strife (and I don't mean the "trusting Uncle America will get you into heaven" textbooks we sometimes drag out). But most importantly, learn from our frickin' mistakes. It's not like we haven't made enough in the last century. The enemy of our enemy is not always your friend!
Posts: 1839 | Registered: May 1999
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Instead we invaded a sovereign nation to get at the enemy of our enemy, because he was not our friend.
Posts: 4350 | Registered: Sep 2000
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