23 June 2011
Addendum to Afghanistan Post
President Obama addressed the nation yesterday and outlined his plan for withdrawal from Afghanistan and an ending to the war. He wants a removal of 10,000 troops starting in July and to return to pre-surge troop levels by next summer. He also projected an end to the war by 2014. I was pleased to hear him discuss the need to protect the advances made in education and for women and girls. I was also glad to hear him imply that the war on terrorism is not one that is fought on a battlefield, but rather one that needs to focus on specific targets. I think the greatest mistake we made with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was to initially treat them like normal combat wars. It was not only less effective, but it also helped to contribute to the image of the US as an imperial force--making it easier for terrorist organizations to recruit members.
President Obama also turned the focus towards the future of the United States. He spoke about taking the middle road between the extremes of military isolationism and troop overextension. The idea that we need to work with international allies to prevent and stop the evils that are occurring in the world is a sound policy. I know that many feel that this diminishes the clout our military may have in the world, but that should not be the focus of our worries. As the president said, we need to focus on nation-building here in the US. Instead of rallying together as we did following 9/11 and with the initial operations in Afghanistan, we have become a nation that has warred with itself and become more destructive with words and ideals than we could have been with weapons. It is time to come back together as a proud people, not to boast of ourselves in front of the world, but to support each other in accomplishing our dreams. We need to become less self-serving and more service oriented--willing to help those in need. It is time to reclaim what made the United States great from the beginning--our willingness to sacrifice our desires for the greater good.
Before I was able to listen to the address, I had heard that President Obama mentioned the troops would be home by September of 2012. I was all ready to write about the president's use of the war to further his presidential re-election campaign. If this was mentioned in another context, then I am disgusted that the troops in Afghanistan are being used as pawns in the elections. and if that is the intent, we might as well just bring them all back now and watch Afghanistan crumble without the loss of more American lives. However, this is not what was mentioned in the address to the nation and the timeline of concluding the combat phase of this war. I am hopeful that the US military and civilian forces will be able to train Afghani troops, police, and the general population as the president indicated. My one fear is that the president has indicated the need for the Afghanis to patrol for and protect against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. I worry that focusing too much of our rebuilding of Afghanistan on their security may turn Afghanistan into a militarized nation as it was under the Taliban. Hopefully, the military and police forces will be trained not to rule the nation, but to ensure and protect the rights of the people from those who would oppress.
If anyone who reads this has served in Afghanistan, I would love to hear what your thoughts are on the issues brought up in this post and the one that preceded it. I am not an expert on Afghanistan and I am not in the military. I know what I learn from books and the news isn't the whole story, but that is all I have at the moment on which to base my comments. If anyone has greater insight into the situation in Afghanistan, I would love for you to share your thoughts. Again, I have to reiterate, this blog is intended to start a discourse--an exchange of ideas. I want to learn more about these issues as much as anyone who reads this blog. If you don't feel like an expert, but have questions, suggestions, or different opinions than the ones I share, I truly want to know what they are. Please make a comment if you are so moved.
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I appreciate the words you have written about this great country of ours. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAs for Afghanistan, rumors I have heard seem to be no more or less founded than what I find in the media, so I hope I am not spreading any falsehoods. One attitude is that the US is so obsessed with fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban that it doesn't spend enough time understanding Afghanistan and its people. While this is a vague statement I think it holds merit because our military presence quite probably dehumanizes the American people in the eyes of Afghani people. (For example, American soldiers wear uniforms and come in groups, not individually.) I sometimes wonder why we try to win the hearts and minds of the people when we have a better shot at neutralizing them by promising to leave them alone.
Another important aspect of Afghanistan which is not mentioned nearly enough is the role of Western modernization. Afghanistan is not only going through political turmoil, but extreme social and economic upheaval as well. I want to attribute this to developmental "growing pains" in the light of their access to new technology and resources. This brings up the biggest, and probably one of the most long term effects on Afghanistan, the facade of advancement. Statistics may show growing internet access but completely ignore the declining literacy rate, resulting in fewer possible internet users. This is only a hypothetical example, but it demonstrates the malleability of statistics, especially with regards to a developing nation. This facade is all over the Middle East and is too new to be sufficiently researched, thus leading statistic-hungry Western nations into false illusions of the actual situation.
Yet, in the end, I find myself extremely frustrated because of the lack on information on Afghanistan. I also would appreciate more points of view.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments. I would agree that our information is probably skewed and the superficial markers we have for indicating societal advancement do nothing to demonstrate real improvement. I think one of the greatest problems is that the West expects the Middle Eastern and South East Asian countries to achieve immediately the same societal advances the West needed centuries to develop. It just isn't realistic. I don't think it will take centuries for things to change, but I do think it will take a generation or two.