Trying Harder in Pakistan and Afghanistan
"this week in Cairo. He will undoubtedly embody our good intentions
and fundamental decency as Americans. But, for all our self-deluding
innocence and naivete, we will remain Graham Greene's leper, and the
harder we try in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the more our actions sound
as a warning bell and an anti-American recruiting call to Muslims
all over the world."
by: Steve Weissman,
t r u t h o u t: June 1, 2009
"Master, how long will it take for me to reach enlightenment?" the eager
student asked. "Perhaps ten years," the teacher answered. "But what if I try
extra hard?" the student asked. "How long will it take then?" The teacher
thought for a moment and smiled. "Then," he said, "it will take twenty
years."
Anyone who has studied Eastern philosophy or martial arts will have
heard the story in one form or another, but it has special application to
President Barack Obama's escalating intervention in Afghanistan and
Pakistan. The harder he tries to win a military confrontation in the two
countries or to engage in a major effort to reform them, the longer and
deeper he will find himself sucked into unwinnable wars and inescapable
quagmires.
The reason should be obvious. The presence of American troops, aircraft
and pilotless drones - or too much American money and too many American aid
workers - will turn increasing numbers of Afghans, Pakistanis and their
fellow Muslims from around the world against us and against those who appear
to do our bidding.
Nationalistic and religious reaction is the one unchanging lesson of
foreign intervention, especially in countries that have a history of having
fought against the British, French or other colonial powers. Yet, the
Pentagon never learned the lesson from Vietnam and refuses to learn it from
Iraq, where top generals still speak of staying at least another ten years.
Nor have Obama's White House and the Democratic-controlled Congress gotten
the message, believing they can soften any anti-American reaction by adding
several billions of dollars more in non-military foreign aid.
In other words, we will try harder, work smarter and do more. It's a
can-do American response, neatly repackaged under brand Obama, as if his
apparent decency and good intentions will be enough to change the way
average Afghans and Pakistanis - and the Pakistani officer corps - will
respond to what looks like unending foreign intervention.
Even those who should know better are swallowing the bait. Only three
senators - Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin), Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont)
and Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) - voted against the supplemental appropriations
to escalate American military intervention in Afghanistan. Leaders of the
formerly antiwar MoveOn also gave their blessing to Obama's wars, while
well-intentioned feminists and defenders of human rights are urging the
State Department to use American intervention as a wonderful opportunity to
remake foreign cultures in America's image, as if anyone knows a good way to
do that.
Almost no one in the narrow debate talks of Washington's long-standing
struggle to dominate the oil and gas resources of Central Asia and the
pipelines to bring them to market. Everyone talks of the very real need to
safeguard Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, without ever raising similar and
inter-related concerns about Indian and Israeli nukes. And early calls for
an exit strategy from either Afghanistan or Pakistan have been replaced by
plans to build a monumental new American embassy in Islamabad. Our folly
knows no limits.
We're in for the long haul, and those of us who have seen the movie too
many times before can only try to explain the drama as it develops. For
starters, let me suggest a first reading or rereading of Graham Greene's
"The Quiet American," in which he describes the similar overlay of innocence
and naivete that led up to America's massive intervention in Southeast
Asia. One of his key characters is a truly idealistic CIA man who blows up
women and children, all for a good cause. "Innocence," warned Greene, "is
like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no
harm."
Think about those words as you hear President Obama's eagerly awaited
speech this week in Cairo. He will undoubtedly embody our good intentions
and fundamental decency as Americans. But, for all our self-deluding
innocence and naivete, we will remain Graham Greene's leper, and the harder
we try in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the more our actions will sound as a
warning bell and an anti-American recruiting call to Muslims all over the
world.
The Soviets learned that lesson in Afghanistan and the Chinese seem to
be avoiding similar pitfalls in most of their global interventions. But we
are Americans, and we try harder.
***
From: "Sid Shniad" <shniad@sfu.ca>
June 05, 2009 Max Blumenthal: Feeling the Hate In Jerusalem on Eve of
Obama's Cairo Address
Max Blumenthal writes : On the eve of President Barack Obama's address to
the Muslim world from Cairo, Egypt, I stepped out onto the streets of
Jerusalem with my friend Joseph Dana to interview young Israelis and
American Jews about their reaction to the speech. We encountered rowdy
groups of beer sodden twenty-somethings, many from the United States, and
all eager to vent their visceral, even violent hatred of Barack Obama and
his policies towards Israel. Usually I offer a brief commentary on my video
reports, but this one requires no comment at all. Quite simply, it contains
some of the most shocking footage I have ever filmed. Watch it and see if
you agree. ( Warning: this video contains profanity and material offensive
to just about anyone. )
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/06/max-blumenthal-feeling-the-hate-in-jerusalem-on-eve-of-obamas-cairo-address.html
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