Political columnists are saying that Americans have a new plan for dealing with the Taliban in Afghanistan. That is, they’re trying to bribe the Talib to become our allies instead of our enemies.
For those who wonder if this is a good idea I recommend a look at the cover of the Aug. 9 Time magazine. What it shows is a (formerly) pretty 18-year-old Afghani woman whose husband’s family were so abusive that she ran away. The Taliban does not grant this kind of freedom of choice to any persons who are unfortunate enough to possess a vagina, so, to teach her a lesson, they ordered her ears and nose to be cut off.
These people are pond scum. If not people like them, who are we fighting against?
Mikael Bergström says:
Well… Thing is, you won’t defeat the taliban by going to war with them. You can’t kill extremism, or bomb it out of existance. The most effective idea would probably be to open diplomatic lines, and influence them more subtly. For every taliban you shoot, three people become angry and desperate enough to join the movement. It’s like exponential whack-a-mole. Memetic warfare would be a better choice – let’s go to war using ideas. They are generally more effective, if handled properly.
August 10, 2010, 4:59 amPat says:
If that was the reason why we are there why haven\’t we invaded Saudi Arabia?
If we want to make a huge leap towards peace we should allow the Afghan opium producers to compete with other pharmaceutical suppliers in the legal market.
August 10, 2010, 7:13 amJeff says:
Never forget that in 2000-01, we gave them something like $60 million for opium eradication. They used to be our allies before they were our enemies.
They also offered to hand over Bin Laden if we would provide proof – the sort of request any country would make before extradition.
August 10, 2010, 7:17 amTheophylact says:
This was done with the US in Afghanistan. Is that supposed to be a reason for us to remain forever?
August 10, 2010, 8:51 amKirk Snavely says:
“These people are pond scum”. What about ‘our’ people, the U.S. Army and Special Forces, that have killed thousands of Afhghanist civilians?
August 10, 2010, 8:46 pmEllen Asher says:
I think your final paragraph is an unjust libel on pond scum….
August 10, 2010, 10:37 pmRealist says:
“You can’t kill extremism, or bomb it out of existance”
Well, yes, actually, you can. We did. How’s the Nazi party of Germany doing in the elections? They were quite popular at one time. We killed them.
August 11, 2010, 9:56 amRealist says:
The Left’s addiction to self criticism, among other mistakes on their part, is one reason that fascism has been allowed to resurface at home and abroad.
August 11, 2010, 10:00 amMichael says:
@Realist – you aren’t being very realistic…the Nazi party flourishes amongst extremist groups in the US and has the entire time since WWII. It actually flourishes in Europe, too — it’s just not as visible because people hide their Nazi affiliations. However, there are fairly vigorous Nazi movements every where there are white people feeling put upon by people the don’t consider white.
That said, if Bush had done things correctly, gotten a declaration of war and actually fought a war, instead of doing this nation building counter insurgency crap, there would have been fewer lives lost, and a more decisive outcome (and yes, probably a wide-scale land war in Asia, encompassing Pakistan and India, but you can’t have everything).
August 12, 2010, 2:58 pmRealist says:
There is certainly a reaction against the progress that was made earlier in the twentieth century – both the Taliban and the Tea Party are part of that. But you can’t say the Nazi party ‘flourishes’. You’re talking about a party that rose on a groundswell of popular and global support and quickly had the great powers of the world cowering in fear. Now, as you say, even racists have to hide their real feelings becuase they could never be allowed to have power if they reveal their true motives. We have to keep it that way.
August 13, 2010, 3:50 pmRay Johnson says:
@Kirk Snavely – Most of the Afghan civilians killed by American forces were casualties of war. Regrettable, yes. Tragic, yes. But in no way are they equivalent to this deliberate mutilation. As for those few members of the US armed forces who may have committed equivalent atrocities, they are pond scum, too.
But there is something very wrong in society when we have trouble distinguishing between atrocity and tragedy. During World War Two, American and Allied armed forces killed many Nazis. In the process, they also killed women, children, old men, whose only “crime” was being trapped inside Nazi Germany. But neither bombs nor bullets are such precision instruments that you can always and only kill the bad guys you’re aiming at. The deaths of those innocents were a tragedy. The deaths of millions in Nazi concentration camps were an atrocity.
August 19, 2010, 5:09 pmJosh says:
@Ray, There are such things as war crimes, human rights, international law, and just war theory; although Kirk is indeed making a false equivalence, our side has committed unjust massacres of civilians many a time, and WWII is no exception, although the next two wars were worse in that department. Most often, the blame does not accrue to “a few members of the U.S. armed forces” but to their commanders or to civilian policymakers. Again, let me assure you that I recognize there’s a difference between such things happening in the course of a war that our side didn’t initiate and atrocities committed by a country’s ruling party on its inhabitants.
August 21, 2010, 6:58 amNeil in Chicago says:
I’m resigned to my long-standing distress at the absence of the people of Afghanistan from the story. For Americans, it seems it really is all about us.
August 22, 2010, 1:59 pmThere is no such thing as “winning” or “losing”, as we use the words, in that part of the world. Eventually there’s a configuration in the endless realignment of factions and splinters and fealties such that everyone is on the same “side”, and it’s over.
Bill Goodwin says:
Truthfully, the most devastating event for American security that I can imagine would be the capture of Osama Bin Laden. And I expect the powers that be know it.
August 24, 2010, 7:30 amMarc says:
Bomb them with McDonalds and Old Navy and the Playboy Channel. Turn that Taliban mutilation into good old-fashioned American self-mutilation.
August 24, 2010, 2:34 pmDennis says:
Mr. Pohl, one of the most interesting, and informed, analyses of the situation in Afghanistan – that I’ve been exposed to – was a lecture by former NPR reporter and now Afghan development activist, Sarah Chayes. She gave a lecture on the topic at the E.N. Thompson lecture series at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. An archived version can be noted below.
The Q&A session got into her take on who the Taliban are and how to deal with them. This was from a single American woman who had been living and working in Kandahar for years without a band of bodyguards to keep her safe. I believe you, and perhaps others, will find it of some interest.
http://www.netnebraska.org/television/news/ent_archives.html
Video and Audio Links:
http://netreal.unl.edu/asxgen/winmedia/enthompson/entchayes_030409.wmv.asx
http://www.netnebraska.org/television/news/media/entchayes_030409.m3u
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Chayes
October 12, 2010, 1:17 pm