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July 19, 2009
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Quote of the day
Thomas Friedman, writing from Pushghar, Afghanistan:
I confess, I find it hard to come to Afghanistan and not ask: Why are we here? Who cares about the Taliban? Al Qaeda is gone. And if its leaders come back, well, that's why God created cruise missiles.But every time I start writing that column, something stills my hand. This week it was something very powerful. I watched Greg Mortenson, the famed author of "Three Cups of Tea," open one of his schools for girls in this remote Afghan village in the Hindu Kush mountains. I must say, after witnessing the delight in the faces of those little Afghan girls crowded three to a desk waiting to learn, I found it very hard to write, "Let's just get out of here."
Indeed, Mortenson's efforts remind us what the essence of the "war on terrorism" is about. It's about the war of ideas within Islam--a war between religious zealots who glorify martyrdom and want to keep Islam untouched by modernity and isolated from other faiths, with its women disempowered, and those who want to embrace modernity, open Islam to new ideas and empower Muslim women as much as men. America's invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were, in part, an effort to create the space for the Muslim progressives to fight and win so that the real engine of change, something that takes nine months and 21 years to produce--a new generation--can be educated and raised differently.
Since 2007, the Taliban has shut down (or bombed) around a thousand schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Eighty percent were schools for girls.
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Comments:
Merkley is a man of surpassing shallowness. Even if he read what you wrote, he wouldn't understand it.
Speaking of shallowness, I think much of Friedman's work rates a high score on this metric. The idea that we could have terminated AQ-Taliban control of Afghanistan, or that we could keep them from gaining control again in the absence of a strong ground presence, is silly. Attempts to conduct foreign policy by random firing of cruise missiles do not work.
OTOH, air power combined with ground forces can be very effective. Too bad that adequate supply of helicopters for Afghanistan is apparently considered an unnecessary luxury. Excerpt from WashPost article:
***
Often Taliban fighters flee when helicopters arrive, Sun said, but this time they stayed, and attempted to fire a rocket-propelled grenade at one of the aircraft. The Huey made two strafing runs with its Gatling guns over the tree lines, while the Cobra fired missiles, finally ending the firefight. The helicopter crew spotted at least two dead Taliban fighters.
Although the Marines asked to pursue the Taliban fighters south, more senior commanders denied the request. Sun said he thinks the problem was a lack of helicopters to provide air power and to evacuate any possible casualties, as well as roads that had not been cleared of bombs.
"Due to the limited numbers of helicopters available, it would not have been in our best interest to get decisively engaged," Sun said. In addition, moving south would leave the bazaar open to attack, he said.
***
The manufacturing of helicopters provides just as much Keynesian "stimulus" as do many other types of government spending, so the argument that we can't afford them--while spending trillions on other things--doesn't hold up.. And it is not reasonable to ask American or allied troops to fight in Afghanistan while denying them appropriate tools.
Can't we put Greg Mortenson in charge of our efforts in Afghanistan? Imagine the impact he'd have -- allowing the Afghan people self-determination while assisting their efforts.
