I've been re-reading some of my belligerent, pro-war posts from late '02 this morning, while working on a new blog entry. Jesus, it's painful and embarrassing to read now. My sincere, retroactive apologies to everyone I slimed back then. What a dick I was (still am?).
....................
Disagreements happen. It's okay.
Back in '02 I had what seemed like an endless series of arguments with comrades about Afghanistan. Many - no, actually most - of my friends thought the invasion was a good thing.
Their arguments were sound enough: the Taliban were a serious regional problem, al Qaeda was responsible for mass murder and had to be dealt with because even a global 'bad actor' such as the US had a right to self defense, women were being denied their rights...
All true.
I repeated the same counter-argument, over and over again until the reported facts of US/NATO failure caught up, overwhelmed and made it unnecessary: you wouldn't put an arsonist in charge of your fire department, you wouldn't leave your baby with a cougar, you wouldn't lend money to your cousin with a gambling problem.
Why would you trust Washington to intelligently and thoroughly rebuild Afghanistan? Any fool with an air force can bomb a country with no defenses; of course the military portion of the drama would unfold swiftly and, at first, successfully.
Never doubted it for a moment.
But what comes after?
This question seemed far away in '02: kites were flying (remember how many stories there were about kites back then?). The B52s and B1s were flying too but they weren't yet dropping ordinance on wedding parties and meetings of elders. American National Public Radio (NPR) reporters were filing happy voiced, folksy stories about Afghan beauty shops, girls going to school and bright eyed, "Western educated" young expats leaving Manhattan and returning to Kabul to open Internet cafes and posh stores.
'You see?' my lefty friends said, 'it's working out. Your concerns are just knee jerk leftism. This was a good thing. You don't support the Taliban as an anti-imperialist force do you?'
Wait for it. Wait for it.
When I read a RAWA report about approx. 60,000 children - abandoned, wandering, hungry - roaming the streets of Kabul I knew the fire was about to be rekindled. Who was caring for these children? 'NGOs' my friends happily replied. NGOs were saving the world, so was Bono. But then I read Cursor.org's "Afghan Canon" series, written by Prof. Marc Herold. NGO operatives were living well - some were undoubtedly trying to do good work and lay foundations.
Others, many others, were enjoying the benefit of billions of dollars of aid money in elaborate ways: SUVs, high end shopping, secure luxury compounds.
Wait for it; it's almost here, just a kiss away.
Soon enough, the "Iraqization" of Afghanistan started: IEDs, mortar fire, mounting US/NATO troop casualities...
NPR - my barometer for middlebrow liberal lifestylist thought - stopped reporting happy stories about beauty shops and girls in newly built schools and kite hobbyists and selfless expats and started bringing us the by now familiar embed's tale - "I'm here with the 1st Infantry division, Lt. Squarejaw is working with the local tribes to win hearts and minds..." - as the thrub, thrub, thrub sound of armored personnel carrier engines gave the background audio a proper 'you are here' feel.
Now it has almost completely unraveled, just as I predicted from the start. My friends have conceded the point.
But there's no victory: I wish to all the gods I'd been wrong.
.d.