{"id":29147,"date":"2017-08-29T07:20:54","date_gmt":"2017-08-29T14:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=29147"},"modified":"2017-08-29T07:26:32","modified_gmt":"2017-08-29T14:26:32","slug":"we-are-not-nation-building-again-we-are-killing-terrorists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/29\/we-are-not-nation-building-again-we-are-killing-terrorists\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We are not nation-building again. We are killing terrorists.\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I read this article from AlterNet, my mind immediately went back to Iraq.\u00a0 With Trump saying “We are not nation-building again.\u00a0 …”, what I heard was one nation, the US, justifying the rape and pillaging of another, Afghanistan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From<\/span> AlterNet<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The upsurge of the Taliban has nothing to do with the presence of ISIS in Afghanistan. It does, however, have a great deal to do with the entry of al-Qaeda fighters of various stripes from Pakistan into its ranks. But even al-Qaeda is not central to the Taliban\u2019s surge.<\/p>\n

That surge can only be explained by the slow desiccation of the Afghan government in Kabul. Despite billions of dollars of aid, Afghanistan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world (31%) and half of Afghanistan\u2019s children are stunted with a third of the population suffering from food insecurity.<\/p>\n

The collapse of humane aspirations for the Afghan people certainly fuels the insurgency and the violence, making it harder to build state and social institutions to tackle these key problems, which once more fuels the war. This cycle of chaos could only be ended if regional powers agreed to freeze their interventions in Afghanistan and if the Afghan state would be able to robustly build up the infrastructure to feed and educate its citizens.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s comment that he is against \u2018nation-building\u2019 shows how little he understands war, for the only antidote to this endless American war in Afghanistan is for the people to reconcile around a believable mandate for human development rather than violence and corruption. No such agenda is on the table.<\/p>\n

Late in July, before Trump made his recent announcement, one of Afghanistan\u2019s most hardened leaders, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, held a press conference in his home in Kabul. Hekmatyar, who was a key CIA and Pakistani ally in the 1970s and ’80s, said that \u2018neither the Afghan government nor foreign troops can win the war. This war has no winner.’ This is remarkable coming from Hekmatyar, who was known as the \u2018Butcher of Kabul\u2019 for his role in the siege of that city after the Soviet troops left Afghanistan (more Afghans died in that civil war than in the mujahedeen’s war against the communist government and their Soviet ally). He has called for negotiations between the Kabul government and the Taliban.<\/p>\n

U.S. General Nicholson painted the Taliban as \u2018a criminal organization, more interested in profits from drugs, kidnapping, murder for hire,\u2019 but nonetheless called upon them to join a peace process. It is clear that whatever the U.S. thinks of the Taliban, they have positioned themselves to be a major political force in\u00a0Afghanistan in the near future. This is why Nicholson and Trump have begun to distinguish between the Taliban (which should be in a peace process) and ISIS\/al-Qaeda (which have to be destroyed). That al-Qaeda is now a key ally of the Taliban should sully this simplistic thinking. But it has not.<\/p>\n

Negotiations seem far off in Afghanistan. The Taliban is well positioned to increase its bargaining power as its legions expand across the country. Surrendered Taliban leader Zangal Pacha (Amir Khan) recently left the fight in Nangarhar province with six fighters. He said that a foreign intelligence service\u2014most likely that of Pakistan\u2014has been egging the Taliban onwards to take more territory. Attacks on tribal elders and public welfare projects are being urged, largely to squeeze Kabul\u2019s hold on the provinces and to strengthen the Taliban\u2019s claim to being the natural rulers of Afghanistan. Pakistan has long wanted a friendly government in Kabul and it has seen the Taliban as its instrument. Whether the U.S. will once more turn a blind eye to al-Qaeda\u2019s role in the Taliban is to be seen. History does repeat itself, particularly when it comes to geopolitical hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

Rachel covered it in two segments.\u00a0 In the first, she explains what she thinks Trump means and who is tasked with investigating the opportunity and bringing it to fruition.<\/span><\/p>\n