Comments on: What Afghans say about the war

By: Silhouette

Silhouette — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:14:42 +0000

“…just 18% to the presence of international forces..”
*************
I like how the pitch of this article is nonchalantly woven in near the end like this..lol..

Just say it already: “some special interest tycoons and their british buddies want the taxpayers to continue paying for their henchmen to secure that area.” It's OK, we know.

By: elrod

elrod — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:59:09 +0000

The reason the debate has turned to the military question is that the military question is the controversial one. Expending a billion dollars or so on non-military investment in Afghanistan is a pretty uncontroversial decision on the American side (where to put the money is a different story, I said above). But expending more military resources – including manpower – is a hugely consequential story for America. It is American lives on the line, after all.

I'm fairly convinced that Afghanistan's problems are more economic than they are political. That is, the Afghans are more likely to lay down their arms if they have jobs than if they have an honest democratic republic. Note that that was NOT the case in Iraq, where questions of ethnic and religious share of power were far more important than money.

By: Elyas

Elyas — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:54:01 +0000

I wish I had the answer to that. There may be a role for the military to play outside of Kabul, working with local leaders to rebuild basic infrastructure and direct spending. As I understand it, this method was a part of the revamped strategy in Iraq.

My main concern is that the debate has been evolving into an either/or question of sending more troops or not, when the primary focus shouldn't be on a military solution but on setting benchmarks for economic and political progress.

By: elrod

elrod — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:42:18 +0000

While I agree wholeheartedly that non-military spending and economic growth would cure much of what ails Afghanistan, how exactly do you that? On the American side it's easy, actually. A relatively small outlay of investment would go a very long way in bottom-of-the-standard-of-living scale Afghanistan. But who do you invest the money with? The Afghan government has proven itself too corrupt to be trusted with aid dollars. And outside Kabul, where do you envision private Western investment going?