Afghanistan – what’s to be done right now
In my opinion, we were right to oust the Taliban in the first place for harboring Al Qaeda, then we made the mistake of trying to build a nation state like our own in a nation and a region that didn’t want or embrace that model. We put in a lot of money and manpower to help Afghanistan build a model that too many Afghans didn’t want from us in the first place.
Now the Taliban are replacing the Afghan government we helped create and fund. It is tempting to blame them; it is tempting to blame Biden or Trump; it is tempting to blame Ghani or the Afghan Army. The Afghan people have endured war for the last forty years, with the Russians, and the US and among their own leaders and warlords. They are fed up with war and bloodshed and corruption.
The real blame on the US side has to be placed squarely on the bi-partisan US consensus over the last twenty years to overstay our initial welcome and our failure to comprehend or conceive an Afghan government that would appeal to the Afghan people. It is sadly a common failing to think you know the answers to someone else’s problems when you can barely speak their language let alone understand their culture. It is a worse failure when you apply an enormous amount of force in an effort to try to create consensus among a warring people.
We made the very same mistakes in Vietnam, Iraq and Libya that we have made in Afghanistan and have failed to learn the lessons of our own arrogance. These were and are very expensive mistakes for the US, for the nations we invade, and everyone caught in the middle. Unlike Vietnam or Iraq, our Presidents did not lie to us to start this war.
When someone like Al Qaeda attacks the US, we have to end that threat, and yes, the Taliban sheltered Al Qaeda. The Taliban were forged in the aftermath of civil war and destruction after the Russians invaded and then withdrew. The US and much of the Arab world financed and armed the mujahedeen as holy warriors to oust the Russians. Some of the mujahadeen morphed into the Taliban, and other parts became Al Qaeda; they were aligned in some ways and yet not in others. The Taliban were trying to build/rebuild a feudal Islamic society within Afghanistan; they were repressive and brutal and particularly horrendous towards the women of the country. We are about to find out whether they have changed for the better or for the worst during their twenty years out of power; we should have no expectations and trust only facts not words. So far the words are promising and their deeds on the ground towards women and children and their erstwhile opponents are quite the opposite. They do not at this point in time represent a security threat to the US.
Al Qaeda by contrast is an outward-facing organization, dedicated to international terror, seeking an Islamic caliphate throughout the Middle East and Africa. They and their affiliates do represent a significant albeit degraded security threat in too many parts of the world. Let’s not confuse the two different organizations or have any illusions about either one.
The immediate task is creating safe harbor for the Afghans who were our allies and want to safely exit and resettle here. We have done that for the Vietnamese and the Laotians who have resettled here and now contribute so much to our common good. We must do the same for the Afghan allies whose lives are now in danger because they were supporting us.
The Taliban could do themselves a huge favor by permitting an orderly exit for those seeking to flee their rule. They face major challenges bringing a modicum of order and justice and effective governance to a ruined nation. They cannot afford to return to their old behaviors and expect the successes that eluded them when they were last in power. They cannot repeat the terrible excesses of Al Qaeda in Iraq and Syria or of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and expect that the rest of the world will stand idle and finance their brutality. Do they want to become another isolated hermit kingdom harboring religious hatred and bigotry towards others of differing religious persuasions and sectarian beliefs?
As Americans we must resist our natural impulses to blame the “other” for partisan advantage and should instead look inside the American impulse to recreate other cultures in our own perceived best images, yet too often to tragic endings. We need to become peacemakers and reliable allies building a better world, instead of war makers or neo-isolationists going it alone. We must rebuild our own fractured nation rather than imposing even our best values on other cultures; we must strive to become the nation we hold ourselves out to be. There are plenty of legitimate and real security threats around the world that need our attention; US invasions are only very rarely the right answer to these threats.
For the sake of the Afghan people, the international donor community now has enormous leverage and must show the will to use it, both to preserve and advance the rights of women and young girls and to deter a bloodbath by the Taliban of those who have cooperated with the international community in assisting the Afghan people. Afghans have made enormous progress over the last twenty years — progress that can be far too easily lost in further blood letting and vengeance.
Prepared by: Lucien Wulsin
Dated: 8/11/21