Afghanistan and America

The new offensive in the south is going well for NATO so far. In military terms it may well work but it cannot succeed in the long term as a civil solution. There is not a single instance in modern history when an outside power, backing one side in civil war, has succeeded in creating an era of peace and tranquility in the affected country. The way to do this is through economic aid, business ties and infrastructure development. These things empower people. People in their own homeland. It is they and they alone who will rid their country of medieval regimes and other despotic rulers. Sometimes it takes a generation but in the end the government which succeeds contains in large measure those branded as terrorists by the occupier.  

There is a useful list of examples. Spain, Kenya, Vietnam, Cyprus, Algeria and Ireland all had military interventions which failed in the end and their own people created the government structure that suited them. 

Farther back, but where all the powers, led by wise men of the day, refused to intervene and let the fractured people reach an outcome on their own, there was the Confederate States of America. Imagine the even greater suffering, the mess and the bitterness if France and Britain had come up with some bullshit about home security and sent their armed forces across the Atlantic ‘to bring peace to the people of America’.

No, some things just don’t work and never will. America, above all others, should know that.