Think Humanely

As many already know, Obama is escalating (not “surging”) the war in Afghanistan. While Christopher Hitchens and others who see Islam as the Devil are clearly overjoyed, as are staunch Bush defenders who understandably feel that this war and Bush’s decision to start it has now been legitimized by the Great Liberal Hope, Americans should remember that we are not a benevelent superpower. We are not angels descending on a backwards nation in order to bring them the gift of Enlightenment. We are not Promethean in nature or action.

Many so-called liberals and progressives, desperate to find a way to rationalize the growing similarities between Obama and Bush – the former President who liberals clamored to be impeached for, amongst many things, the very actions that Obama has now undertaken himself – tell themselves that we are there for the poor women in Afghanistan. We’re bombing their country and killing their family members and friends so that they can be free. As Glenn Greenwald points out, anyone who actually listened to Obama (or history) knows this to be demonstrably false:

He [Obama] made explicitly clear that we are in Afghanistan to serve our own interests (as he perceives them), not to build a better nation for Afghans. Nation-building, he said, goes “beyond … what we need to achieve to secure our interests” and “go beyond our responsibility.” We’re there to serve our interests and do nothing else. That should throw cold water on all on the preening fantasies of all but the blindest and most naive “liberal war supporters” that we’re there to help the Afghan people.

Independent of motive, it is also quite unlikely that helping Afghans will be the unintended result of our ongoing war there. Just as was true in Iraq — where we bribed and befriended religious extremists and others we spent years demonizing as “Terrorists,” and now protect a government that is extremely oppressive to women, Christians and gays, and brutally violative of human rights in general — we will do whatever benefits us and serves our interests in Afghanistan, even if that means empowering brutal, oppressive and misogynistic fanatics as long as they are willing to carry out our geopolitical directives. Many of the warlords and other local religious extremists on whom we’re already relying and will now use even more are hardly distinguishable from the Taliban on human rights issues. We’re not there on a charity mission but are there to advance what we think are our interests. That’s why some of the most oppressive governments in the Middle East will continue to be our most stalwart allies.

For those who also cling to the notion that this is only a momentary escalation, a necessary evil so that we can finally bring the troops home in 18 months, I suggest you try listening to Defense Secretary Gates:

Speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Gates said that there are “no deadlines in terms of when our troops will all be out.” Gates also said a US withdrawal would probably take two to three years whenever it begins. Meanwhile, the top US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, appeared before Afghan lawmakers in Kabul.

Or perhaps Secretary of State Clinton is more to your liking: “‘we’re not going to be walking away from Afghanistan again. We did that before. It didn’t turn out very well.’”

I think we should all take a moment to pause and reflect on how grateful we should be that we have an anti-war party to help act as a check on the belligerent Republicans.