One more month and
my good friend Mingo will be giving birth to his first novel since returning
from Afghanistan eight months ago. A full pregnancy for that first true-to-life
novel where fiction will only play a secondary role . . . a minor subordinate
part; just enough, he tells me, to keep himself out of trouble and give the
story added luster. I certainly look forward to reading his first Pashtun epic.
Last January, Mingo
gave me a preview of coming attractions, predictions as to how things might be
turning out with the Taliban. By late spring, he forecasted, they�ll start
making their presence known . . . and little by little they�ll keep on getting
stronger aided, for the most part, by the people�s discontent with a government
cadre who have the mindset that safety and security can only be had by
dispensing favor to the devil himself. Also, he added, that corruption would be
running rampant, with no measurable economic improvement for 90 percent of the
population.
As of last week,
his contacts in Kabul, Herat and Kandahar -- who have kept him well informed of
the situation there -- are of one mind: things are not getting better for
Karzai, no matter how accommodating he tries to be; and the prognosis for the
government in most provinces is quite different from what is being written and
broadcast in the Western media. Contrary to the information now being fed by
the US-led coalition�s military brass, or those who speak for Karzai, it might
take only a year, maybe two, before the Taliban assumes once again the reins of
Afghanistan; or, submerges the nation into another civil war with devastating
consequences.
And what about this
Afghan Army that Americans have been training for four years? It�s likely to
disappear overnight as individual soldiers, even entire units, desert to join
the Taliban. Gen. Eikenberry, I�m told, has no better prospects for success in
this rugged mountainous nation than his Soviet counterpart, Gen. Pavel Grachev,
did in the '80s; or, for that matter, than Gen. Westmoreland did in Vietnam
during the crucial 1964-8 period. No military taskmaster, regardless of
personal genius or creditable resume, can deal effectively with the
complexities involved in a contrasting culture and the diverse and conflicting
needs of the ruggedly independent, and individualistic, Afghan people.
An interesting
anecdotal commentary on the subject, now making the rounds among the more
educated Afghans, is that America is always a culture, or a war, behind the
times. They point to the current secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, as a
Russian speaker with background in Slavic Studies, heading diplomacy in a world
where the US is facing a three-prong confrontation with Arab-Muslim peoples,
Latin America and China. A great articulator of gobbledygook, they say, but
someone who appears clueless to the problems America faces internationally; or,
if knowledgeable, she proves incompetent in providing remedial feedback to her
�feather-light� boss, by not showing him the fallibility in the planning and
execution of his foreign policy. So why should they -- Afghans -- be surprised
if they get a political-military expert (Eikenberry) running the show who speaks
Mandarin and has a background in Far East Studies? The punch line probably
sounds better in Dari than it does in English, but the message is unequivocally
there.
But the
unpopularity of the government, and the coalition forces that keeps it in
power, does not originate solely from unrealized expectations. What appears as
unforgivable to the Afghan people, perhaps more so than anything else, is the
indifference in which they are treated, and the whitewashing of misdeeds by the
occupiers. Although Karzai has been vocal demanding accountability for the
coalition�s behavior, particularly on key incidents where Afghan lives were
presumed lost at the hands of Americans, the lack of credible resolution has
rendered him just another puppet head of state. His strength and resolve,
Afghans say, start and finish in his vocal chords -- whatever the Pashtun
saying for �all talk, no show.�
Communism, whatever
the reasons, never had a chance to coagulate in Afghanistan. (US help to the
Mujahideen, Osama bin Laden among them, is at the top of the list.) And
democracy, for many of the same reasons, is not likely to sprout and take root
. . . at least not quite yet. On that note, Americans may just wish to do what
the Soviets did in 1988 . . . not �cut and run,� that to many implies cowardice
and defeat; but rather �cut and walk,� which implies maturity in the
realization that a mistake has been made, and that it�s time to cut your
losses. It took the Russians nine months to effect the pull out, capping a war
that had lasted almost a decade.
America cannot prop
up a government that is to its liking, not in Afghanistan and not in Iraq, just
so that it can show the world its invincibility . . . for that myth burst long
ago, one recalls, in the jungles of Vietnam. And Americans cannot just say, not
with a straight face, that they are doing it for freedom and democracy, or for
the people who inhabit those lands. Fewer and fewer Americans continue
believing that.
The sooner America
�cuts and walks,� the better its chances that it won�t have to �cut and run�
later; something it was forced to do in Vietnam. And if the nation�s
chickens-in-command need to be plucked of their hawkish feathers, so be it.
It�s about time America gets surgery on its ripened cataracts.
� 2006 Ben Tanosborn
Ben Tanosborn, columnist, poet and writer,
resides in Vancouver, Washington (USA), where he is principal of a business
consulting firm. Contact him at ben@tanosborn.com.