When U.S. President Barack Obama announced America’s planned troop withdrawals from Afghanistan last week, he aroused the ire of those who think Western forces shouldn’t withdraw before finishing the job, without scoring any points with those who think the U.S. and its allies shouldn’t have sent troops to do the job in the first place. Others, myself included, think it depends on what “the job” was supposed to be.
If the job was to depose a hostile regime that trained and sheltered enemy belligerents, troops were tailor-made for it. Whom would you have sent? Lyric poets? Social workers? No one? Let al-Qaeda roam at will? Maybe pay the Taliban a terrorists tax?
Nonsense. Our soldiers did what soldiers do flawlessly. They defeated the enemy. In Afghanistan they deposed the Taliban and installed Hamid Karzai as interim president by late 2001. In Iraq the Anglo-American forces did just as well: They sent Saddam Hussain scurrying into his spider hole within six weeks after hostilities began in the spring of 2003. By December of that year, Saddam had been captured. After hiding in caves, Osama bin Laden hunkered down in self-imprisonment in Pakistan. The troops had put both out of action long before they actually perished.
However, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’ll say again what I’ve been saying for years. If the job was to build a secular democracy in Afghanistan, it wasn’t a job for troops. It wasn’t a job for foreigners, period. It was (and continues to be) a job for Afghans.
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I tend to agree with Jonas. We all should have left Afghanistan when we were still winners and later (if required) returned and beat the hell out of them again. Continue “lesson” until learned.
We didn’t and therefore we end up looking like idiots.
In my mind it is clear after spending blood and treasure for a decade in a “7th century” shithouse currently populated largely by adult homicidal “fruitcakes” we will only win using the current template if we continue our activities for at least another thirty years. That is about how long it will take to educate enough people in that country to bring them anywhere near our standards and only then will they be in a position to help themselves.
Frankly, I’m not prepared to pay the bill for this situation as it now stands and for certain I do not want to leave it to my children. Therefore I thank Harper for pulling us out because he saw it also. There may be a better way and I am sure he has given it some thought.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. The cheap way to win this war is bring Afghan children to Canada and educate them here in a safe environment (think doctors, nurses, teachers, diplomats and most important of all “hard bitten soldiers” trained and educated to OUR standards with a mission they believe in). When they’re ready we send them back and assist at that time with their needs on the ground.
Not before.
There is no other way to sort this country out and my firm belief is that Canada “can do that stuff”, as can many other countries. It’s a matter of will.
That’s my personal view.
What happens if all these children we would bring to Canada to educate, decided they wanted to stay here. There would be no way of enforcing their return to Afghanistan.
mid island mike
We can fix that, Mike with legislation but I’m far from certain we would have to. Most of these children I mention would want to go home again if we teach them properly. They do have a country after all and like ours they would want to make it a better place I think.
We just have to show them how (call me a “dreamer”).