Let's Put the Analogies to Rest Posted by The Editors

This post is by NSN intern Jennifer Lickteig.

In Sen. John Kerry’s Washington Post opinion piece earlier this week he alluded to an argument some have used against sending more troops to Afghanistan—that the country is a ‘graveyard of empires’ and to continue to spend resources and risk American lives there is an exercise in futility. But Kerry next states the goals that make our campaign different from those who have come before us, and will keep us from being doomed to repeat history:

 “Our goal has never been to dominate Afghanistan, but, rather, to eliminate al-Qaeda’s haven and to empower Afghans to govern their country in line with their best interests and our national security.”

Where others have attempted to control Afghanistan, we are attempting to give the country back to its people. For example, in the Anglo-Afghan wars of the late 19th century, the British were hostile towards the local population and their larger interests were countering Russian influence. This led to an unsuccessful first war and Pyrrhic victory in the second. Then during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, their goals are anyone’s guess. Expansionism has been ruled out by many academics, but whether control of the country was of geopolitical importance or whether fear of U.S. involvement in the untrustworthy regime drove them to act, the presence of land mines that looked like toys would suggest that Soviet intentions were not benevolent towards the broader Afghan population.

If those were the U.S. goals, then maybe the analogy would stand.  But the Obama Administration’s goals are likely to look a lot like the goals Kerry described in his op-ed, namely “preventing the Afghanistan–Pakistan region from becoming a staging ground for terrorist attacks against the U.S. and other nations or a source for instability” in the region.  Dedication to helping Afghans develop a capable army, a productive economy and a transparent and effective government that can provide some measure of safety and economic opportunity security from violence and poverty, sets us far apart from our predecessors, making the ‘graveyard of empires’ argument a false analogy.

Comments

[Dan Kervick]

Where others have attempted to control Afghanistan, we are attempting to give the country back to its people.

Ok, now this is just embarrassing. We could give Afghanistan back to its people tomorrow, and let them figure it out. But clearly the problem is that we only want to give it back to certain people. And whatever pretty pictures we paint of that desire, that means in practice that we are trying to control the internal politics of Afghanistan.

And what ever one might think of professions from US leaders about our benevolent intentions toward the people of Afghanistan, one must admit we have killed an awful lot of those people. A US drone and a Soviet mine probably don't look all that different from the ground in Afghanistan.

This lack of realism, historical perspective and critical self-reflection is very disappointing. This is where exceptionalism among liberal interventionists turns fatally dangerous. Do the authors think the United States, unique among great powers, has invented good intentions?

[Russ Wellen]

The "graveyard of empires" is a dusty metaphor, but not because it comes from another time. It's no longer relevant because the United States already found its La Brea tarpits in Iraq.

[redwood]

I'm with you, Dan Kervick.

But I think this arrogant notion of giving the country back to Afgans comes from Jennifer Lickteig, not the Kerry sentence she quotes.

To be sure, one cannot get this statement:

"Where others have attempted to control Afghanistan, we are attempting to give the country back to its people."

From this one:

“Our goal has never been to dominate Afghanistan, but, rather, to eliminate al-Qaeda’s haven and to empower Afghans to govern their country in line with their best interests and our national security.”

It's not in their interest to habor al-Qaeda (or any transnational terrorist).

Liberals have such a hard time hearing Obama's foreign policy. He's signaling that he respects sovereign equality and self-determination and that he is not going to use Human Rights as a wedge, as Carter and Clinton did.

Thus, with the Taliban, all he cares about is that they cough-up terrorists. If they promise him that, he can live with them.

[Don Bacon]

The seven years' war against the former 'safe haven' of the nineteen guys with box-cutters has been eclipsed by recent intelligence indicating that the primary terrorist threat to the USA is from the UK, so the thirty thousand new troops ought to be re-directed to Londontown with Predators over Picadilly, which make as much sense as what the US is currently doing.

[David Billington]

Even if we grant the premise of the comment, the real question is whether we intend to commit the troops necessary to accomplish the stated goal. I have not heard anyone in a position of responsibility say explicitly that the number of US troops available to reinforce those in Afghanistan would be sufficient.

[redwood]

the new goal in Afghanistan is to cut a deal with the Taliban in which they promise that, if we let them govern again, they will cough up any transnational terrorists.

In short, Obama will not build Other people's governments, nor will he act unilaterally to enforce Human Rights.

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