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Afghanistan Myopia
By maudeaster on 2009-04-14 09:48:38
I have been thinking about how, once a public policy is announced, it expands to transform our view of the problem it
addresses. Somehow, all the alternative approaches fade into the background. They tend to stop being examined, and they
seem less doable. Looking at the experience of Congress with the issue of Iraq, we know well how feeling powerless to
change course in the early days of a policy can lead to increasing tragedy as time unfolds. It seems important to me that
Congress not make this mistake again with the Obama policy of escalating the US military occupation of Afghanistan. So
let's pull the lens back a bit and look at some really game-changing, alternative policy routes we and Congress could
encourage the Obama administration to pursue. There are some very interesting ideas laid out by Michael Scheuer, the CIA's
former point man on Osama Bin Laden. Scheuer suggests there are really two options: the unrealistic plan of killing all the
jihadists, making it quick and withdrawing -- OR beginning to pursue an agenda which addresses what he calls the Muslim
issues, by which I take him to mean issues on which current US behavior angers many Muslims around the world. Scheuer's
list of pivotal issues needing rethinking and diplomatic action include: the American military and civilian presence in the
Arab peninsula, unqualified US support for Israel, US support for states which oppress Muslims (China, India, Russia), US
exploitation of Muslim oil and suppression of its price, US military presence in the Muslim world, US support and
protection of Arab police states. Instead of focusing myopically on a future terrorist attack being planned in a cave in
Waziristan, addressing the issues on Scheuer's list could actually undermine the appeal of terrorism. This approach could
actually offer a path to stability, an alternative to the endless military actions which inevitably kill civilians and leave
countries in fragile, vulnerable states (think of Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia). Acting on Scheuer's list would be hard and take
political courage, but it could actually address the stated goal of Obama's Afghanistan policy - protecting the US from
terrorism by Al Qaeda - by doing something about the issues that feed it.
