Pantomime Farce
Send more troops. Is anyone surprised? It was instructive to view the American film, "The Beast", as a brief snap-shot chronicle of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Simplistic it might have been, in portraying the antagonists - the invader and the invaded - sympathetically and fairly honestly, but it also contained a lesson in human relations, a reminder of historical fact.And, in fact, the non-instructed world community appears doomed to forget history, condemned to repeat its failures.
Of course there remains that great twofold conundrum; how to protect non-Muslim nations against the groaning tide of fanatical Islamism, and how to respond to the need of ordinary Muslims requiring their own protection against that same rising tide of incendiary fanaticism that victimizes their own even more fully than it does the "crusading" infidels.
While the invasion of Afghanistan had a purpose other than rescuing its people from fascistic Islam, the rescuers fondly burnish the image of themselves as global Galahads, rescuing Afghanistan's women, girls and boys - and moderate Muslim men as well - from the viciously uncivil depredations of the Taliban. Who, just incidentally, make common cause with al-Qaeda, unsurprisingly.
The new American military head assigned to Afghanistan by the new U.S. administration describes the situation currently in that Allah-forsaken-country as "serious", but 'still winnable'. He recommends an increase in co-operation between the U.S. and its allies; have they not been co-operating to date? And, he instructs his administration, greater numbers of troops are required, over and above the current 63,000.
"The situation in Afghanistan is serious, but success is achievable and demands a revised implementation strategy, commitment and resolve, and increased unity of effort." Thus saith General Stanley McChrystal, confoundingly diplomatically and knowledgeably. There is a greater need to provide security and assistance for the ordinary Afghan population. Is this in any way a surprisingly new declaration?
Mind, the United States sees itself in a bit of a quandary, given the questionable outcome of the recent election in the country, which has been unquestionably undemocratic in the breadth of the vote-rigging that has taken place. And since the most brazenly offensive instances of voter meddling took place in support of the current President, Hamid Karzai, there is a problem in perception, of the U.S. supporting a somewhat 'illegitimate' head of state.
President Karzai is furious at the very suggestion that he or his minions might have indulged in skulduggery; not for them ballot-box stuffing, intimidation or bribery. His adversaries most certainly engaged illegitimate means of persuading voters, but he had no need to, nor would he ever descend so low. Yet, it is clear that if President Karzai is not returned to power, all the king's men would never be able to put dumped Humpty together again.
His failed administration - corrupt as it most certainly is, in a country mired in corruption and failure, stagnating in a religious, social, economic and political malaise it cannot and has no wish to correct - must be salvaged at all costs. And when that has been accomplished, there will be more, much more of the same.
Dreary, isn't it?
Labels: Human Rights, Political Realities, Religion, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, September 01, 2009
<< Home