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Date Posted: 18:15:01 10/08/09 Thu
Author: Bob
Subject: Forum: a cursory review of the situation in Afghanistan

We now have US forces in a failed state that's endured 30 years of war in which literacy is 28%, life expectancy hovers around 44 years, and infant mortality is 157 per thousand live births. Its primary cash crop is opium and its US-installed government is corrupt. It has returned essentially to the state it was in when the Taliban, which promised peace and security under strict Muslim, law took power---except for the area controlled by the Northern Alliance.

Perhaps the tribal structure and ethnic divisions in Afghanistan preclude it from ever becoming a viable nation-state. These conditions have contributed to the instability of many African nations and were central to the breakup of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

The problem facing Obama in Afghanistan has a lot of dimensions: the concern that the country could again become a refuge for Al Qaeda were the Taliban to again take power; the danger to Pakistan's security from a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan because of a refuge it could provide for Pakistani Taliban whose aim (and Al Qaeda's) is control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.

There are parallels to Vietnam, one being that the US is not adept at nation-building. Not only that, our own economic situation precludes any long-term effort in Afghanistan which the American people would not countenance, given their cultural demand for instant gratification. We are not conditioned for the long haul in which dead Americans are now seen arriving daily in flag-draped coffins at Dover AFB. Our single venture into European-style colonialism was the Spanish-American war, and we gave the Philippines their independence in 1947. In return we got Michelle Malkin.

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