The Irresistible Illusion
By Rory Stewart - LRB
We are accustomed to seeing Afghans through bars, or smeared windows, or the sight of a rifle: turbaned men carrying rockets, praying in unison, or lying in pools of blood; boys squabbling in an empty swimming-pool; women in burn wards, or begging in burqas. Kabul is a South Asian city of millions. Bollywood music blares out in its crowded spice markets and flower gardens, but it seems that images conveying colour and humour are reserved for Rajasthan.
....When we are not presented with a dystopian vision, we are encouraged to be implausibly optimistic. ‘There can be only one winner: democracy and a strong Afghan state,’ Gordon Brown predicted in his most recent speech on the subject. Obama and Brown rely on a hypnotising policy language which can – and perhaps will – be applied as easily to Somalia or Yemen as Afghanistan. It misleads us in several respects simultaneously: minimising differences between cultures, exaggerating our fears, aggrandising our ambitions, inflating a sense of moral obligations and power, and confusing our goals. All these attitudes are aspects of a single worldview and create an almost irresistible illusion.
In the fog, remember: victory is impossible in Afghanistan
By Matthew Parris - The Times
It’s easy to be blinded by the valiant effort, as well as the acronyms and euphemisms. But the harsh truth does not change.
....But my argument is that news like this is a distraction from the underlying story. The battle will ebb and flow. But victory is impossible.
....Acronyms are not the only refuge. Others lullaby their brains to sleep swathed in the acrylic blankets of a new language now suffocating the ministries, missions and shirt-sleeved development-wallahs in shiny white Toyota 4x4s: a hideous hybrid of NGO-speak, Whitehall-chic, political pap and military jargon . . .
“Across the piece”, “agent for change”, “alternative livelihoods”, “asymmetric means of operation”, “capability milestones”, “civilian surge”, “conditionality”, “demand- reduction”, “drivers of radicalisation”, “fixed-wing assets”, “fledgeling capabilities”, “injectors of risk”, “kinetic situation”, “licit livelihoods”, “light footprint”, “lily pads”, “messaging campaign”, “partnering- and-mentoring”, “capacity-building”, “strategic review”, “reconciliation and reintegration”, “rolling out a top-down approach”, “shake — clear — hold — build”, “upskilling”.
Can the Right War Be Won? Defining American Interests in Afghanistan
By Steven Simon - Foreign Affairs
The Obama administration recently completed its 60-day review of U.S. policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to the president, "The core goal of the U.S. must be to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaeda and its safe havens in Pakistan, and to prevent their return to Pakistan or Afghanistan." The United States will pursue this goal, he explained, by carrying out five tasks: disrupting terrorist networks that are capable of launching international attacks; "promoting a more capable, accountable, and effective government in Afghanistan"; building up Afghan security forces that are "increasingly self reliant"; nudging Pakistan toward greater civilian control and "a stable constitutional government"; and getting the international community to help achieve these objectives under UN auspices. The premise of the strategy is that the turbulence in Afghanistan and Pakistan, if untamed, will lead to a nuclear 9/11.
Afghanistan's war on books - The Afghan government's destruction of tens of thousands of books is another sign that the country's culture is under threat
By Reza Mohammadi - The Guardian
The Afghan government last week threw tens of thousands of books into the Helmand river, in the south of the country. This peculiar story of animosity towards books has a history in Afghanistan as well as in its neighbouring countries.
....Now, seven years after the fall of the Taliban, when numerous democratic countries are present in Afghanistan supporting freedom, including freedom of speech, and the government is run by technocrats rather than theocrats, the ministry of culture has made Helmand river's water turn black after throwing tens of thousands books into it.
These books include history and philosophy as well as works of literature and poetry and a sacred Shia book called Nahjulbalagha. They were published abroad by one of the few Afghan publishers, Ebrahim Shariati. This destruction has happened while the government allows books on exorcism, magic and fortune-telling to be made available to the people.
CHANGING WORLDVIEW IN A CHANGING WORLD
not really a blog...just some links to articles, books, reviews, blogs, sites
not really a blog...just some links to articles, books, reviews, blogs, sites
04 July, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment