One of my many gripes with America’s foreign policy of the Post Cold War era is it’s obsession with spreading Democracy. Although this is a noble goal, it should not be our priority. America should pursue a foreign policy based only on National Interest. These interests should be based on economic grounds and defense of the homeland, not academic theories. Our current experiments in Iraq and Afghanistan shows the futility of Democracy spreading. Although a Secular Party came out ahead in the Iraqi elections, the 2 main Sectarian Shiite parties have signed a deal and it gives the Clerics in Najaf a say on policy. Is this what we lost 4,000 men for? To establish a Theocracy?
In some civilizations, like Dar AL Islam, Democracy doesn’t work. An example is Turkey, when the Army called the shots it was modern and secular. Since the Bush Administration and European Union pressured the Turkish military not to intervene in politics, the Muslim Brotherhood linked AKP has been in charge and Turkey is reverting to Islamic-Imperialism. America also can’t be the world’s policeman and try to solve every problem. We need to focus on what is possible and not live in a delusional state that the world is like America.
Faith in the future and security are certainly benefits of Nato’s military campaign, but our objective is not to remake Afghanistan. That is the Afghans’ job. If Kabul eliminated corruption, conducted free and fair elections, and greatly increased its military reliability and capabilities, that would help to eliminate the Taleban.
But we cannot withdraw from the conflict just because the Afghans may not be meeting our standards. Leaving due to Afghan government failures, of which there are and will be many, would jeopardise our strategic objectives, frustrating the very reasons for intervening after 9/11 in the first place: preventing terrorists from re-establishing Afghanistan as a base, or using it to destabilise Pakistan and seize control of Islamabad’s nuclear weapons.
We must achieve these objectives — which means essentially destroying the Taleban — whether or not the Afghan government shapes up. That is the right metric, not nation building. This is a hard truth, but realistic unless you are prepared to risk a nuclear Taleban.
Read the rest: Nation building is a luxury in Afghanistan
John Bolton is dead on in his analysis. Our primary goal in Afghanistan should be to kill the enemy. We should not be propping up a corrupt regime and maybe should encourage a Military strongman. The idea of spreading Democracy is a Progressive concept that comes from the Wilsonian Ideology and has infected both the Democrat and the Republican Party. We need to reject Neo-Wilsonian Ideology and embrace a National Interest only based foreign policy. Democracy and Human rights, although noble ideas, are not worth the blood of American soldiers. Only the interests of the United States of America is worth their sacrifice. Being the good guy doesn’t buy you security, and the last 9 years prove it.
Let’s have a blog discussion on this. No view is right or wrong on this matter, just different perspectives.
