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It’s impossible to impose your will on people in Afghanistan – congressman
Published: 28 December, 2009, 10:45
Edited: 29 December, 2009, 05:36
Pushtun tribal leader Mohammad Daoud. at left, with elders of the Durrani. (Images from canada.com)
(51.0Mb) embed videoTAGS: Military, Middle East, Politics, USA
The Soviet and American experience in Afghanistan shows that any attempts to impose alien values on the local population will fail, believes US Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.
“It’s a village tribal culture and we need to go down to work with them on that level rather than force them,” he told RT.
“As it takes to defeat any foreign army that is there is to force them to do things that they don’t want to do – whether it’s the Russians, the British, Alexander the Great or the United States of America – these are courageous people.”
The Soviet Union had no success in the 1980s organizing the Kabul-based government, he said. Now the United States are trying to organize the central army – and that is not working either.
The locals need the government that is close to them – “real democracy that works from the bottom up and not from the top down” – Rohrabacher concluded.
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26 comments
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It is not possible to impose will; true. But this is not the purpose. As the managers are here fond of saying, you cannot change people, but you can change their behavior. The objective is to stay, and in 100 years or so, be able to influence the whole region. The purpose of the occupation is --- occupation. If things go good --- need to stay. If things go bad --- of course you cannot cut and run. "We will never abandon you", the motto goes. And the natives would like to be "abandoned", but no such luck. As in Iraq, Afghanistan will stay occupied for as long as the occupying powers pursue the policy of Full Spectrum Dominance. Over time, occupying contingents will be inside modern day castles, sending drones --- in the best style of Empire.
Jim are you sure that winning "hearts of minds" was ever part of the United States strategy in Afghanistan or anywhere else in the Muslim world? Let me bring less the reported case of Somalia. In 2006, after 18 years of endless misery, Somalia formed the first government. Even though most members of this group were the sons of local well known and well respected Somalia families, the United States did not like the peace this group brought to the country because they were called the Union of Islamic Courts. The United States sponsored the overthrow of this group by using Christian mercenaries from Ethiopia backed by U.S air and naval power. Once inside the country, the Ethiopian troops have committed most heinous forms of vandalism: rape, looting and massive destruction of the local institutions. The United States has moved to Somalia after the Soviets left that country and were the main backers of the long serving dictator, Siyad Barre. Do you think that American military and policymakers did not know how ordinary Somalis will read the occupation of their country by Christian troops from Ethiopia? Do you think despite having singular focus in controlling the strategic Indian Ocean waters of the Horn of Africa, the U.SAmericans had and wants to win the "hearts and the minds" of Somalis? I think not. In fact, I am convinced Americans have not developed the political and social resources required for winning the hearts and minds of people with values and traditions different from that of the United States.
Get ahold of yourselves. This thing about "imposing your will upon the Afghanistan people" is a big crock. Do any of you commenters remember that the United States was sucker punched by a bunch of criminals who's leaders were tracked back to Afghanistan. The whole thing could have been ended immediately if America had chosen to "nuke it out" with them, rather than "duke it out" with them. America's patience could start to run thin. Don't ASSUME anything about America. This has been the downfall of many in the past.