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RedditOn one of my last nights in Kabul I retire to the spacious home of my acquaintance the intelligence contractor. Particularly fascinating is his insight into the mindset of Western diplomats and military officers.
Research support for this article was provided by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute.
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Getting Pakistan Wrong
Graham Usher: The US military's aggressive confrontation with the Taliban and its Al Qaeda cohorts in Pakistan is only making matters worse.
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Torturing Iron Man
Nick Turse: The Pentagon does a star turn in Iron Man, and the summer blockbuster turns the realities of the war in Afganistan upside down. Will anyone notice?
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Phil Donahue on the Bleak Future of Iraq
The Young Turks : Why isn't Phil Donahue back on television? Because he speaks the truth.
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Battle Pieces
Eric Foner: In This Republic of Suffering, historian Drew Gilpin Faust strips from the Civil War any purpose beyond massive slaughter.
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Amid Silence, Terror War Escalates
Tom Hayden: Bush's "war on terror" is escalating without discussion or dissent amid the most open and democratic of American processes--the presidential debates.
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Amnesia at the Multiplex
Lakshmi Chaudhry: Two films address US adventures in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with a big dose of historical amnesia, political pandering, moral superiority and outraged innocence.
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Waltzing With Warlords
Peter Bergen: Five years after the United States ousted the Taliban, optimism about Afghanistan's future is evaporating. Three new books shed light on what went wrong.
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Letters
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What Nuclear Renaissance?
Christian Parenti: Despite a slick PR campaign hyping its promise, the nuclear industry isn't going anywhere. It's too costly and won't save us from global warming.
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A New Diplomacy for Pakistan
Christian Parenti: As American policy-makers and pundits seek a Plan B for Pakistan, it's time to recognize the desperate need for a new diplomacy for the Muslim world.
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The Fight to Save Congo's Forests
Christian Parenti: A history of colonial neglect and endemic corruption has unleashed a lawless logging binge in the heart of Congo's massive woodlands.
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Christian Parenti: Congo Diary
Christian Parenti & Laura Hanna: The Nation's international correspondent journeys deep into the heart of the Congo Basin woodlands to see how a massive logging boom is decimating the world's second-largest tropical forest.
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Big Is Beautiful
Global Warming & Climate Change
Christian Parenti: Green utilities are growing, but they need to grow faster.
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Who Will Get the Oil?
Christian Parenti: War and corruption have decimated Iraq's oil supply, and Western companies are angling for a cut of what's left.
Surprisingly, that view has gained traction in several countries with ISAF troops. British Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Howells suggested that talks might be useful, and some in the Canadian New Democratic Party have agreed. Then, in early October, US Senate majority leader Bill Frist said the war in Afghanistan could "never" be won militarily and suggested that some Taliban be allowed into the government. One rumor in Kabul was that the Taliban's military commander, Mullah Dadullah, might be offered the Defense Ministry.
But a few posts for some top leaders won't end the war. There are already many ex-Talib in the Parliament and ministries, and they push the Afghan government in fundamentalist directions. As for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, few believe he would settle for anything less than ruling Afghanistan himself. And what about the Al Qaeda network operating on the border northeast of Kabul, in Nuristan and Kunar? It's hard to imagine the Bush Administration placating these champions of international jihad with the offer of an Afghan ministry.
Negotiations may help the West save face as it disengages, but it is unlikely they will do more than that. Ultimately, the US-built state in Afghanistan seems unreformable, and its future looks calamitous. Yet the nation builders in Kabul remain in denial, each concerned with immediate performance and the next promotion rather than the big picture. My host the contractor illustrates this mentality with a historical anecdote.
"Did you know, the US government continued family postings to Vietnam as late as four months before it fell?" he asks. "You might have thought that someone would have smelled the rot earlier and asked, 'Do we really need to bring the 2-year-old to Saigon?' But no--that would have been pessimistic, bad for the career."
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