Ten Years in Afghanistan

The United States invaded Afghanistan in the wake of 9-11-01 in order to dislodge the Taliban and fight Islamic extremism. Ten years later, the question needs to be asked what has that effort netted us? Almost 2,800 soldiers have been killed from the international coalition that first invaded Afghanistan.

 Furthermore, the Afghan government is the second most corrupt government in the entire world. As American forces make plans to largely withdraw by 2014, the fledgling Afghan army is an uncertain commodity that will be tasked with preventing a civil war in Afghanistan.

I have my doubts that we’ll reach a good conclusion in Afghanistan. Me doesn’t trust that the Islamists aren’t just playing a waiting game, waiting for an American exit before reemerging. And at any rate, I don’t trust Karzai to carry Afghanistan to peace.

The best American hope may be, to revisit a less centralized form of government that I’ve spoken of during my Afghanistan series posted in July, where you have the centralized government in Kabul, but autonomy throughout the various regions of Afghanistan. This type of government is the only sort of government that has succeeded in Afghanistan’s beautiful, yet sad, history.