America did have a brief opportunity, right after we overthrew the Taliban, to change the course of Afghanistan to that of a more modern nation. We did not.
As we later learned in Iraq, the systems of both nations were utterly worthless, and needed to be scrapped, then replaced with modern systems. In Iraq, every system we tried to salvage, “out of cultural respect”, was an unmitigated disaster. Those we upgraded from scratch at least had a chance.
But we made little or no efforts at nation building in Afghanistan. But there was much we could have done.
To start with, erect a fortified national boarding school for all orphans near Kabul, with secular teachers teaching a western style education. These children would be raised to be the future government, military leadership, bureaucracy and business leaders of Afghanistan. Their education would be based in nationalism and patriotism.
Next, because Afghanistan has a rock bottom wage, every unemployed male would be hired to work in giant national infrastructure projects. Thus any adult unemployed male walking around would be immediately suspect.
Their money would be given to their family. The women would be in charge of local government, with microbanks to set up small businesses.
The country itself would be given a MacArthur (PBUH) constitution to western standards. It could not be changed for 30 years after its introduction. All citizens would be issued ID cards for rations, voting, banking, etc. The card would have their picture on the front and encrypted data on the back.
What is the genesis of the “nation building” objective? Why not simply “find terrorist, take out terrorist”?
The US lost in Iraq, lost in Afghanistan and now US lost at home. It doesn’t even matter anymore what happens anywhere else.
The US lost in Iraq, lost in Afghanistan and now US lost at home. It doesn’t even matter anymore what happens anywhere else.
The US lost in Iraq, lost in Afghanistan and now US lost at home. It doesn’t even matter anymore what happens anywhere else.