The question is how would you describe Afghanistan today, and how would you describe it next year? Try uneducated and poor.
To be very clear, I am not saying dumb or lacking in intelligence. I am simply saying that most Afghans are uneducated and those who could make a difference are principally concerned with how they, themselves, become less poor. Afghanistan is playing out like a zero sum game.
It is in most every person of even modest wealth and education to keep things as they are. Enter the Islamic religion and the fundamental, the better. Keep the girls in second class status and subject to the whims of men. At least there would be some reward for men even if they had no money. The Koran and a woman, not so bad.
It is against this picture that one should think our military commitment to Afghanistan. There is no resolve at any level of the Afghan government to educate the masses, and consequently, there is no consensus on how to raise the general population’s standard of living.
This is true today and it will be true tomorrow. Yet the longer American military forces remain, the more Americans will loose their lives or become seriously wounded. The longer we stay, the more money we will waste.
It is time to tell the king he has no clothes on. It is time to end the erroneous notion that America can perform “nation building” in Afghanistan. It is time to say enough.
What a great thought for Memorial Day.