Afghanistan: The soft underbelly of a freebee occupation
When an occupying force oversees the security of a radically different culture that was formerly ruled by a militaristic theocratic tribal regime, there is no doubt that it will fall the moment their protectors leave.
No amount of money and training can replace the self initiated will to be free and independence of the occupied. When the occupied are content and satisfied in their occupied status the alarm bells should ring.
Some of the Afghanis population benefited massively with the US security umbrella. No doubt a certain number of Afghanis became very rich during this period.
The US could remain there indefinitely and the situation would not change one iota. The whole occupation and security effort was basically a free lunch for a minority of the Afghan people.
A democratic thinking goodie two shoes person is no match for a religious zealot with a gun. The truth is that most theocratic nations will remain for decades if not centuries to be what they are — religious prisons of the mind and way of life.
The lack of education by the masses and primitive views of how society and families should function will guarantee the rule of a leader who can master the methods of an absolute theocratic leader. They will do whatever it takes to harness the population into following the dogma that guarantees their power.
The mistake American’s make when they see other countries and cultures that embrace a way of life that is not to their liking is that they think they can produce a lasting change, just because a minority of their population seeks with open arms for such a deliverance.
The Afghanis have their traditions and their family structures that have been that way for hundreds of years. As bad as it may seem, they do what they do because it is their DNA way of life. The only way it will ever change is slowly over hundreds of years.
Forward thinking people want to see what they feel are progressive social and political changes, of so-called backwards countries, happen during their life time. That is the yard stick of progress that they use and that is what keeps American military forces in such places, at all and for all too long.
When you are threatened by a few wasps you swat them and try kill them or scare them away, you don’t go to the nest and try to turn the wasps into honey bees.
The average person has no idea what it is like to think and be an Afghani, man, woman or child.
The same kind of attitude about other cultures resulted in the atrocities of native Americans and other indigenous peoples around the world. The occupiers took it upon themselves to subdue their lifestyle and culture and impose their own culture and lifestyle as ‘civilized’. We all know the results of that. It took hundreds of years of unknown suffering and injustice that are only of recent years coming to light.
So what is the lesson of Afghanistan? When threatened, kill or swat the wasp from a distance and don’t go anywhere near the nest.
Feel sorry for how some people are treated, yes, but don’t make the mistake that you are going to go in and change their way of life and make them better in your own imaged image.
Immigration can solve the problems for those who become enlightened and want to live a different way of life not occupation.
