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President Obama has articulated an Afghanistan policy with the stated goal of replacing military solutions with diplomacy. Yet the dispatch of at least 21,000 troops to Afghanistan directly contradicts that goal. Once more, the new policy is built more on mythology than fact. A few of the most prominent myths are as follows:
1. MYTH: U.S. national security is enhanced by expanded U.S. military activity.
FACT: The seven-plus years of U.S. and, later, NATO military action in Afghanistan has destabilized the region, including Pakistan. Allied bombings, missile attacks and intrusions into Afghanistan dwellings to search for insurgents and their weapons has caused a notable drop in the Afghanistan support for the continued presence of U.S./NATO troops.
2. MYTH: Addditional U.S. troops will help defeat the Taliban
FACT: U.S./NATO military action actually strenthens the Taliban by inflaming the Afghans' hostility to the occupying forces. It is also difficult to distinguish Taliban forces from ordinary Afghans and those tribal militants whose primary opposition is to the national government. An expanded military presence will likely increase this identification problem.
3. MYTH: The U.S. military commitment will be limited in size and duration.
FACT: As has been abundantly demonstrated in Iraq, rising U.S. casualties will cause growing political pressure to avoid a U.S. defeat by increasing our commitment. Once again the refrain will be heard that those U.S. soldiers who died in Afghanistan will have sacrificed their lives in vain if the U.S. cannot come out with something that can be called a victory.
Leaving aside the dueling mythology/fact approach, probably the major reason that the U.S. and allied forces cannot succeed in Afghanistan is the age-old problem experienced by other invaders: it is difficult to supplant an existing cluture with an alien one. Despite their opposition to many aspects of the Taliban rule, many Afghans feel nostalgia for the order and security provided by the Taliban when contrasted to the chaos of a long and continuing war.
