December 6, 2009
-
Afghanistan - a political discussion
Afghanistan is a nation with an interesting history - which can be summed up as attempted domination by the rulers of adjoining nations for the past several hundred years.
This state is made up of more than a dozen rather disparate tribal/cultural/linguistic groups with only one over-riding similarity. They are almost all Muslims, but even here they are divided among major (Sunni & Shia) and minor denominations within Islam. The tribes do have a web of common Islamic beliefs and culture.
There are two major languages spoken - Dari Persian, and Pashtun - and several minor languages, but many Afghans are bilingual. The government has always (well, almost always) been a traditional rather weak central monarchy with local and area tribal rule. Since Afghanistan has long been a buffer state between unfriendly neighbors (most recently Great Britain and the USSR), the development of a strong central government along with natural resources and industry has lagged well behind its neighbors: Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan.
Our invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was to deny Al Qaeda a safe haven there and seems to have been successful. The Taliban and Al Qaeda seem to have disassociated themselves and less than 100 Al Qaeda fighters remain in Afghan territory - at least according to the CIA.
Currently our policy seems to be to control, disarm and dismember the Taliban so as to prevent its return to power and thus once again provide Al Qaeda with a safe haven. To do this we have attempted to strengthen and encourage the growth of a fairly liberal national government - one which continues the guarantees of personal freedom and civil rights.
There are (at least) two major problems with this policy:
For most of its existence, Afghanistan has not had a strong central government - and when it did have one, that government was seen as repressive; and second, Afghan tribal society tends to be quite conservative and traditional - with traditional Shari'a Islamic law as the basis for moral authority - which runs counter to the civil rights inclusions in the National Constitution, especially women's rights.
To achieve our current stated policy goals we will probably have to deal directly with the local and regional tribal governments - as we ultimately have done in Western Iraq. The real authority in Afghanistan lies with these local authorities but we have not yet resolved how we can breach the considerable moral and cultural beliefs which separate us.
Will the US be willing to back a strong group of regional governing bodies against the Taliban even if these rulers are essentially undemocratic and authoritarian, or must we remain as the central authority enforcing the power of the weak and corrupt central government?
Comments (13)
Hi Dick! Just the thing I've been learning about! My political sociology course went over a little about the war in Afghanistan, so I'm glad you brought this up.
The U.S. policy of preventing Al Qaeda forming is legitimate. Whether that requires a strong central government is unclear, not that it's possible anyway given the cultural/geographic/economic circumstances. So our only option is to work with the local warlords, elders, whomever controls the S/SE border region and also encourage Karzai to do the same. By working with them, I mean economically, not militarily. Personal freedom, civil rights, etc will have to wait. Those things were established in the most liberal Western states, under the best circumstances, in the modern era only after hundreds years of interstate war and internal strife. To expect these things to take root within a decade is a pipe dream.
We ought to stop demonizing Iran and coordinate our plans with both Pakistan and Iran. George Gavrillis recently gave a talk to our class on Afghanistan -- he described Iran's role in this article. Surely our government went through all these options and more. Sending 30K troops seems to be the result. Not ideal, but it gives Obama + Dems a way out in 2011.
My 3 cents!
Those last couple of paragraphs are key, and if memory serves, that's a significant element of President Obama's suggested strategy. Cause for hope, I guess.
Uhm... i believe you are not exactly right in defining Afghani society. I read some books about it (if you are ever interested i can give you some titles), and it looks like that the traditional culture is far from the rules that are imposed by artificious dictatures.
Other thing is those "bad guys" that governed and are still controling Afghanistan. Those people were driven by interests that nothing had to do with afghani people. In the beginning there was the invasion of USSR, then the war, mirror of the cold war between USSR and USA, and now the war to terrorism. In those phases cruel people were put in charge of the power because of those interests, and normal people were only victims of this situation.
Apparently before USSR invasion in Afghanistan women were pretty much free to do whatever they wanted. Then history evolved in a strange way, over there.
Some other things were kind of strange - for example there were some ethnic groups that were considered inferior (in fact they were used as servant, almost slaves), for example the Hazara. It could have been an interesting experiment to go back in time and allow a peaceful self-evolution of culture in that area without the intervent of the Big Powers and their selfish interests.
Dario, I had the opportunity to look pretty closely at "The Northern Tier" (Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey) in a couple of government-sponsored summer institutes back in the '60s and '70s so most of my current knowledge of Afghan affairs is general reading - but I'm pretty much up to date on Afghan basic culture.
Come to think about it, I had a professor at Harvard, (Adam Curle) who was somewhat of an expert - he is the only prof I ever had who had been held for ransom by a Pushtun tribal warlord.
Afghanistan had a long history of resisting attempts at central government and I believe the last really powerful Afghan central government was under Ahmad Khan Abdali back in the 1750's. The geography of Afghanistan makes resistance toward central government very easy - as we are finding out.
Rouhollah Ramazani's book The Northern Tier is a pretty good general summary, as is J. Stewart-Robinson's The Traditional Near East
twoberry- My idea to defeat the Taliban is quite simple. Let George W. Bush lead them for eight years.
tychecat- Do you worry that by empowering these provincial lords we could possibly be creating the "Taliban" of tomorrow?
Dear Dick,
I love history, and posts like this are always interesting to me.
I certainly hope you don't have to write a similar post about Pakistan next year, since the Taliban seems to have found some degree of "safe harbor" there. I cringe at these "wars" and conflicts which never really amount to any gains on the side of the U.S., since we are "simply" attempting to stop an ideology from spreading. A rough goal and an "unwinnable war".
Happy Holidays,
Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool
The Taliban is apparently a political party based on strict Shari'ih and Islamism (Islamism is an Egypt-based anti-colonial political movement)
I gather the Taliban has always ruled by fear and intimidation and has never been popular in most of Afghanistan - or Pakistan
I dont have an answer to your question but found the content of your entry stimulating and informative.
Uhm... i am not sure Talibans could ever gain the power if not supported by USA...
@gpspacey -
I think we need to stop demonizing IRaqis and get real about Iran--the crown Prince and oldest Princess and their mother who was fully coronated are the authorities on the current situation among the resistance and Sea of Green. There is such a push and so many disappeared--raped and tortured--as with other times of mass slaughter, as under Khomeni and Rafsanjani--we don't need to demonize Iran--the Clerics do quite well left to themselves. Even the Basij--orphaned and poor children they reared themselves, are beginning to see the writing on the wall. It would be a mistake if we didn't.
The Iranian monarchy was not a long- reigning one. the last shah's father was an army officer who siezed power in a military coup in the 1920s. The uprising against the last shah was a very popular one. The US history of interference in Iranian internal affairs is not particularly admirable and has done a lot to blacken our image in Iran. Despite this, my Persian friends tell me Americans are still popular among middle-class and urban Iranians.
I doubt that the Iranians would welcome any of the Pahlevi family back.
Outstanding post but I was wanting to know if you could write a
litte more on this subject? I'd be very thankful if
you could elaborate a little bit more. Bless you!
Christmas, birthdays, and other special events can be enjoyable
for each the giver and the receiver, but they can also be stressful.
The receiver must pretend to like every thing they get,
even if it is as off the mark as it could possibly
be. The giver should not only be worried with buying the correct current, but
also whether the gift has a thoughtful presentation. For some, this
just means using some wrapping paper. If you're
exhausted of just going the usual route, however,
here are some creative ideas you can use. From beautiful gift wrap bows to individual photography, right here are 5 suggestions to beautify your presents.
That's the important to direct visitors visits: market
your website all over the place. I suggest that every
advertising endeavor ought to have your website deal with on it.
If I was you, I would put it on my hats, vehicles, advertisements (print, radio, online, television), pens, agreements, indicators, shows, nametags, brochures, billboards, mugs, shirts, all totally free presents and
anything else you use for advertising. The much more you
direct traffic to your site the much better. The much more you marketplace your internet deal with,
the much more you will see your immediate traffic increase so unfold the word.
After the service we went to get our kids and they were beaming.
Yes.that's right.our kids loved Sunday College there. Usually a new church experience will send
them all into tears, but not this time. They couldn't quit
sharing stories about how a lot enjoyable they had.
We've chosen our leading ten group assembly ice breakers that
are certain to get your assembly participants relaxed and prepared to concentrate on your agenda as well as
to link with others in the group.
The 3rd concept is a memorial or funeral memory or guest guide.
I prefer visitor publications that integrate pictures of the reduced and a space to create a
bit about the lifestyle that they led. Instead of just having
a book to create in names of people who attended
how about if the individual is inspired to write how they understood the departed.
A guide full of names of individuals numerous of whom you don't know becomes a pretty meaningless book.
Some publications even have a place for memory playing cards.
You'll study about them in the next idea.
Also, if you want some of the extras this kind of as possibly an inflatable
jumper, you might want to place an order at this time as nicely so that you can get exactly what you are searching for.
Capture someone's name and you've got something firm to stand on whilst you listen to what they have
to say. You have something firm to grab when you want to capture their interest.
And if by opportunity they actually intrigue you and you truly want to follow up
with them, you are equipped if and only if you know their title.