It’s Time to Come Home (Part ONE)

These comments were written with an eye on Afghanistan. Given the events of this week in Libya, and the sudden potential for a new long-term entanglement there, they take on new significance. 

When I use the words “we” and “our” in this post, I am referring sometimes to the United States, sometimes to all the people and nations of Western Civilization, sometimes to all the “Children of the Enlightenment” throughout the world.

‘Bottom Line Up Front’ – Except in defense of the innocent against atrocities, we should not force change on other cultures which are not willing to change. We are financially and emotionally weary from a decade of war. We need to pull back, reevaluate, and take time to heal.

[This article is presented in two parts; this is the first. Thank you for reading. –Gryphem]
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“It’s Time to Come Home” (Part ONE)

OUR LIMITATIONS

We cannot guarantee that our great-grandchildren will live in a better world. Removed from them in time, we cannot control the actions of our descendants. We cannot ensure that the world of the future a century hence will be prosperous or just.

Likewise, we cannot control the experience or environment of those who exist outside our realm in other ways. Some of those with whom we share this planet today are far removed from us by distance, or by cultural values and traditions. The social and philosophical frameworks by which they comprehend reality are utterly different from our own. For these, our distant human brothers and sisters of the year 2011, we can no more guarantee a good and just society than we can for our distant descendants of the 22nd century.

Here are a few essential beliefs that we live by.
       • All human beings are of value, and have certain rights.
       • All human beings share similar hopes, fears, abilities and aspirations.
       • We are all connected. All human beings are, at some level, children of a common family. We are all cousins.
       • We do not have the ability to correct all the problems of all the troubled societies of the world.

Those of us who live in nations that are prosperous and free do have a certain ability to influence, perhaps even a responsibility to improve, the bigger world beyond our borders. But we need to realize our limitations. We do not have either the understanding or the resources to fix all the problems of humanity. We may be persons of goodwill, yet we are human beings nonetheless. We are not gods. Our nations may be more prosperous, our governments more libertarian, our cultures morally superior to others.* Even so, it is unreasonable for us to attempt to control things which we have no right or ability to control, no matter how much we want to help.
[* Not all cultures are morally equivalent. For a defense of this statement see the Gryphem post of November 29, 2010 entitled, “All Cultures Are Not Created Equal.”]


THE PRESENT SITUATION

At present, the United States and the NATO Alliance are pursuing a noble cause in Afghanistan. Some might argue that the motives are not noble, but whether we choose to believe the best or the worst of ourselves is largely irrelevant. It is irrelevant because no matter how high (or low) our motives, no matter how powerful our military, whether or not we have the right to do so, the United States and NATO do not have the ability to radically change the people and cultures of Afghanistan.

The problem is that we are attempting to impose our enlightenment values on people who find those values utterly foreign. The people of Afghanistan are not invested in the process. Many do not share the goal of a free society; many do not value human rights. If they did aspire to these things, the story might have a different ending. That appears to be the way the story will end in Iraq, which shares more cultural history with Western Civilization than Afghanistan does. In Afghanistan we are battling on behalf of a population that does not share our values or even our goals. That is not to say that most Afghans want a return to the times of oppression under the Taliban. They do not. But it does not matter that most Afghan people do not support the Taliban… because they do not support us, either. It does not matter that we mean well. It does not matter that we are militarily powerful. It does not matter how much we wish it were otherwise.

A few of the Afghan people do understand human rights, liberty, and the potential for a better life. But they are a minority. We do have the ability, with extreme effort and expense, to produce small changes. But the essential character and motivations of this region, so different from our own, are ultimately in the hands of the Afghan people, not us. We can create minor changes if we exert major effort. We can change the lives of individuals, but not transform entire cultures. We can influence… but in the end the people of Afghanistan are going to create their own reality and their own society, based on their own vision of how it should be.

Meanwhile, we are overextended. We have been overextended for many years. Our military is incurring long term degradation of mission capabilities. Essential training and maintenance, especially in the sea services, has been put on hold while we fight two land wars. The land forces are being exhausted by recurring deployments to war zones. Reserve Forces have been employed routinely as a normal part of the operating force composition to such an extent that we no longer have much military capability actually held in reserve. It’s all being used, and depleted.

Now consider the financial situation.  Our nation once was the world’s greatest creditor. In the past couple of decades we have become one of the world’s greatest debtor nations. This development is not solely because of military spending, but the expense of ongoing wars has certainly contributed to our economic decline. In a world in which economic factors can be as significant to national security as diplomatic or military factors, our overspending makes our nation less secure.

The American public is tired of constant war, even if it is far away. Children in middle school have no memory of a time when we were not fighting a war in Afghanistan. We have financial troubles that are made far worse by warfare.

We are obliged, if we are able, to defend the innocent, to aid the victim, to extend compassion and justice as far as we can. But it is neurotic for us to think that we can overcome all the evils of the world. We are not that powerful.

For ourselves, to the extent that we are able, we need to end the warfare.


UNACCEPTABLE ALTERNATIVES

Some readers are thinking that we really do have the ability to change Afghan society, if only we tried hard enough. In one sense, they are correct. We have the ability to utterly destroy.

If we decide we value victory more than we value human life, if we are willing to forsake our own values in order to win, then yes, we have the military ability to eradicate Afghan culture by killing most of the Afghan people and utterly intimidating the rest. Then we could create a new society in the rubble.

In centuries past we did that with Africans who were taken from their homes and brought into a slaveholding society. We did that with Native Americans when we eradicated many of them and forced most of those who survived onto reservations. Of course, few would argue that slavery or the Indian Wars were morally defensible.

We did something like that with Japan after World War II. The post-war occupation of Japan was the ultimate way to neutralize a nation which had been a threat and held the promise of becoming a threat again, in time. As an ongoing response to the unprovoked attack by Japan on the United States, the occupation had an element of moral defensibility. We remained true to our values in that case by staying out of most aspects of traditional Japanese culture and focusing our reform efforts on government and economy.

Some readers are thinking that we now have a moral obligation to Afghanistan, that it would be wrong for us to turn away from a people, nation, culture, who need our help to end oppression and avert a human rights catastrophe. It is true that when we remove ourselves from the Afghan situation, we should do so carefully, gradually, in order to minimize the chaos that is likely to follow. It is true that we should evacuate some individuals and families who would be targeted by enemies for their former support of our efforts.

As we withdraw, we should take every reasonable precaution to prevent chaos and injustice.  We will grieve for the inevitable tragedies that evil people will create for their fellow human beings. Those tragedies will happen because other people with other values will decide that is how they want their society to be.


THERE ARE OTHER OPTIONS

Here is an opt-forgotten fact.  The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are ‘Wars of Choice.’ That means that our national survival is not at stake. That means that we have the option to end them.

Some say that the war in Afghanistan is a war against Al Qaeda, the terrorist organization behind the attacks of September 2001, which has as one of its stated goals the destruction of the United States. True enough. That is why our Afghan involvement began, and countering terrorism is still a consideration. We must balance expenditure of effort, energy, and wealth against the return we achieve. We must include in the calculation the ongoing damage we may be doing to our national psyche.

For nearly a decade we have contained, but not destroyed Al Qaeda. Here are some hard questions we need to bring to the light of day. How long are we willing to maintain our forces in Afghanistan to contain Al Qaeda? How much effort are we willing to give? How many American casualties are we willing to accept? How much more damage are we willing to accept to our image among the community of nations, and to our own self-image as we continue to fight a war that might not be necessary? How much are we willing to increase our budget deficit to keep boots on the ground in Kabul, Kandahar, and the Afghan outback? Is perpetual warfare justified? What are the other alternatives?

The unspoken secret is this: There ARE alternatives. There are alternatives that will continue to check Al Qaeda and keep us safe. We do not have to keep doing the same thing in the same way just because that’s how we’ve been doing it. We need an honest national dialogue to answer these questions: (1) What are we accomplishing in Afghanistan? (2) Is there some way we can end combat operations there and accomplish the same or better results?

It is important that we not waste our effort and resources in futile attempts to change far-away and exotic societies who don’t really want to do things our way anyhow. If we spend our effort and our resources in futile attempts, we reduce the amount of effort and resources we have available to do real and lasting good… and we can do real and lasting good in places that are closer, to whom we are more culturally connected, who are more willing to partner with us in the effort. That is where our efforts will do the most good. But only if we return home, regroup, and refocus.
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[To Be Continued…]