I’m sometimes at a loss for words when writing about Afghanistan because I have family there, because I know many ordinary Afghans see the United States as an unwelcome occupying force at this point, because I believe that we’ve seriously dropped the ball and have an obligation to ensure the Taliban never regains power, and because I don’t have a clue what the right strategy is.
That’s why reading articles like this one pisses me off to no end. A snippet:
Taleban militants in the Swat valley in north-west Pakistan have threatened to kill girls who attend school.
A local Taleban commander ordered parents to stop sending their daughters to school by 15 January. In comments broadcast on an illegal radio station, he threatened to blow up schools which enrolled female students.
This year alone, Taleban militants have destroyed more than 130 schools in the Swat valley. They want to bring in Islamic sharia law in the region.
The Taliban fell seven years ago—SEVEN YEARS—and we’re still reading stories about them blowing up schools and oppressing little girls? I’ve generally tried to avoid saying “I told you so” to those who supported the invasion of Iraq, primarily because my words would never reach those that I would truly want to hear it, and they are on their way out of office anyway. But you know what? I told you so. Those of us who said that Iraq would be a distraction from stabilizing and rebuilding Afghanistan, that we should be careful not to let history repeat itself in that region, weren’t just looking for a rationalization for a dovish foreign policy. We were serious and we were right.
And history is repeating itself, according to this CS Monitor article. NATO forces are encountering the same problems the Soviets encountered more than 20 years ago: “The US and NATO control neither the countryside nor the militants’ hideouts in Pakistan, and as civilian casualties increase, Afghan anger is mounting.”
If we had spent on rebuilding Afghanistan even a fraction of the billions we’ve poured into Iraq, we most likely wouldn’t be in this situation. Now we have fewer options. Resentment has built up. Civilians have been killed. The Taliban is regaining control.
Not that these vile people wouldn’t be causing trouble if we hadn’t turned a blind eye to the country, but I find it hard to believe that they would be able to publicly broadcast threats to schoolgirls if we had given Afghanistan the attention it deserves. If those children die, if those schools fall, that blood is partly on our hands.
And it breaks my heart. The people of Afghanistan have essentially been living in a war zone for 30 years. A country once on its way to modernization and development has been reduced to rubble, and many Afghans my age or younger have known nothing but war. They deserve a chance to know peace. And I have no idea how we’re supposed to make that happen now.
Cross-posted at Ablogistan.