This is the question that troubles the waters of the movement formerly known as 'anti-war'.
As for me, I look to two stories to provide guidance - one, an old fable, the other, the unfolding, real-life tale of Washington's blowback generating actions in Afghanistan.
The Scorpion And The Frog
You know this story. A scorpion needs to cross a stream and, after much debate, talks a frog into allowing him to ride on his back. About midway across, the scorpion suddenly stings the frog, sealing both their fates. The frog, with his dying breath, asks the scorpion why he would do such a thing to which the scorpion replies, "it's my nature."
Expecting Washington as presently configured, which by its nature (like all great powers of the past) is preoccupied with plans and counterplans, purposes and cross-purposes, all directed towards the goal of maximizing the power of ruling elites to behave honorably in Iraq is, I believe, unwise.
The US' involvement in Afghanistan ilustrates this with terrible clarity.
Consider, for example, this excerpt from an Asia Times article by Ramtanu Maitra entitled, "Washington's Afghan plan unravels" -
<begin excerpt>
The ABCs of the Afghan campaign
To repeat the ABCs of this situation: the key players in Pakistan on whom the US is relying to eradicate Taliban extremists are the very individuals who created the Taliban. By supporting President General Pervez Musharraf in his power grab in 1999 in a coup under the pretext of replacing a "fundamentalist" with a "moderate", Washington did manage to buy off a small section of the Pakistani army personnel. These switched from being pro-Taliban to become pro-American. Needless to say, Musharraf is one of them. Since then, Washington has dumped money on Pakistan, looked away from its enriched uranium-for-missile deal with North Korea, and suppressed information about the on-going support to the Taliban and al-Qaeda militia by a section of the Pakistan army and the ISI.
The results are plainly visible. First, two Pakistani provinces - Balochistan and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) - are now under fundamentalist control and Islamic laws, reminiscent of the Taliban-imposed so-called Dark Age laws, are being put in place in the NWFP. Second, the bordering tribal agencies, where Islamabad's writ never ever reached, have become the hideouts of the al-Qaeda and the Taliban. These areas border eastern and southeastern Afghanistan, where most of Afghanistan's major cities are located. The fabled Kabul-Kandahar road runs parallel and close to the borders.
<end excerpt>
full at http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EG15Ag01.html
Many folks demanded that the US stay in Afghanistan to provide 'stability' and do the job of reconstruction right. But, given the results of intrigue and intervention described above (I recommend everyone read the whole article) how can we continue to insist upon this and be surprised that the scorpion does what scorpions do?
It would be better if these meddlers, who apparently cannot help themselves, be pressured to leave people the hell alone and give the victims and those who truly want to help them the capital and material to resume peaceful lives.
DRM
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