The Difference between Afghanistan and North Africa and the Gulf States

Yesterday, I talked about the embarrassment the Kandahar prison break caused to the United States and its allies who spent the winter trying to eliminate the Taliban in their southern Afghanistan strongholds.

I also have talked a lot recently about Libya and its freedom fighters.

It may seem a bit illogical for me to support the Libyan freedom effort and at the same time state that the West ought to get out of Afghanistan and let it sort out its political and religious problems itself.

If you look back over my comments in the past 3 months about the “Arab Spring”, I’ve been largely supportive. Too supportive, some may say. But, in Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen the revolts have been spontaneous and have cut across many of each country’s social and age strata. Bahrain may be the work of agitators funded by Iran, but we really have little proof of this except for the Saudi and Bahraini governments’ statements.

Afghanistan is an entirely different problem. On February 2^nd, I wrote the following and I think it is more true than ever today:

Frankly, the West ought to be getting out of Afghanistan. The British used up a large part of the 19^th century trying unsuccessfully to “pacify” them. The Soviet invasion and occupation in the 1980s failed spectacularly and probably was a cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union….The truth is that Afghanistan is an ancient country made up of several tribal components which have more or less always waged bloody wars against each other when they were not united to defeat invaders….The Allies freed Afghanistan from the Taliban, but without Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Afghan muhajhideen guerrilla leader credited by the Wall Street Journal with winning the Cold War by his rout of the Soviet Union, nothing would have been accomplished. He was a guerrilla warfare genius, and a sunni Muslim who rallied his countrymen with his winning military tactics and his less fanatic interpretation of Islam….It was Massoud who tried to warn the West that an imminent attack on America was in the making. It came just two days after his assassination….I mention Massoud because he represents the type of leader who can win in Afghanistan. All the military technology and fire power in the world will not win if it is not used by a new Massoud.

When people are willing to put their own lives on the line for freedom, we should support them. But, when a client state milks us for money and uses it to perpetuate their corrupt power, it is time to get out and let them work out their problems themselves.