Afghanistan: Where futility becomes folly

Christopher Vasillopulos

What calls for explanation is not why so many with so little information have been right, but why so many with so much information have been wrong.

Eight years ago, I wrote in the Turkish Daily News that the search for Osama Bin Laden would be futile. The search continues and so does the futility. I further suggested that while it might be satisfying to punish a terrorist, all the real problems of Afghanistan would remain. American policy should have been to help the Afghanis find their “Atatürk.” Although such an effort was likely to fail, it would have indicated that Americans were behind the people of Afghanistan in their efforts to improve their lives. It would have demonstrated that Americans were not afraid of an independent, strong-willed and gifted Afghani leader who would put the welfare of his people first. Of course, charismatic geniuses cannot be expected to emerge on demand. However, it did not seem unreasonable to expect a modestly competent and honest Afghani leader to be found from among 30 million people. Then the long process of building the modern Afghanistan might begin. Instead, under American supervision, if not control, Hamid Karzai, a corrupt and dishonest politician, became the so-called leader of a collaborationist regime. Worse, as The New York Times has reported, his brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, a reputed drug dealer, had been employed by the CIA. Futility becomes folly.

In the Arab Middle East, American interference can be explained by its concern to protect the world’s most precious resource: oil. No such temptation exists in Afghanistan, not unless Americans wish to control the opium trade. Assuming that neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama wish to become drug kingpins, Afghanistan could have been left alone to deal with its own problems, calling on international support when needed and on its own terms. But what of the Taliban? I believe the Taliban, like many other anti-modern, fundamentalist movements, can be seen as a group of frightened reactionaries attempting to conceal their fear in an Afghani form of medievalism. When modernity and its challenges frighten, medievalism and its stability beckon. To defeat the Taliban, the Afghanis need to believe they can enter the modern world as a nation-state without undergoing intolerable destruction of their core values. This is no simple task, but one which in time has been accomplished by many peoples.

What about al-Qaeda? As a foreign group, at least when under Arab control, al-Qaeda is unlikely to find more than temporary repose in Afghanistan. Only so long as terrorism can be used against the West, al-Qaeda will be tolerated.

The only plausible reason for American concern in Afghanistan is its possible impact on Pakistan. If we are invading Afghanistan to secure Pakistan, will we invade Pakistan should our Afghanistan policy fail? Even neocons have not suggested this, although it is no more unreasonable than invading Iran. Pakistan will have to take care of itself, accepting American economic and technical assistance on its own terms. The Pakistanis, like the Afghanis, will have to find a legitimate and competent government if they are to avoid the siren calls of religious fundamentalism and the ephemeral and self-defeating satisfactions of terrorism.

Inseparable from legitimate and competent government is the belief of the people that the government works in their behalf, for their welfare. After physical security, the concerns of ordinary people the world over are largely economic, the care and feeding of their families. Of course, religious beliefs are important when they provide a sense of transcendence, meaning and solace, as they do in prosperous societies. Religion is to be feared not when it is Islamic but when an extreme form of fundamentalism seems like the only way to deal with the discouragement and despair that attends the inability to provide for one’s children. In the modern world, more than bread is needed, more than decent housing. Modernity implies the need for health, education and hope. Of course, modernity will continue to frighten, will continue to entail anxiety associated with structural change. The best way to assuage fear and anxiety is to allow people to believe that the future is on their side. This is not a job for soldiers. It is a task for human beings dealing with respect with other human beings, one by one, one day at a time.


* Published in Turkey's TODAY'S ZAMAN on Nov. 23.