My March 29, 2010 post, “Karzai Scolds Obama Over His Failures,” satirized President Obama’s nighttime visit to Afghanistan. It presented the trip as having been demanded by President Karzai so he could lecture Obama on the subjects on which, of course, Obama actually lectured Karzai, i.e., corruption, governance problems, and drug control.
I was thus surprised when, a mere four days later, On April 2nd, this headline appeared in the Wall Street Journal: “Karzai Rails Against West, Claims U.N. Fraud.” The article discussed Karzai’s accusations concerning Western and U.N. misconduct in the supervision of last summer’s presidential election. It also noted “widespread disenchantment among Afghans with the West, which many view as enabling the government’s corruption and doing little to rebuild the country.”
Then, two days later, on April 4th, the Journal had this headline: “Karzai Slams the West Again.” It noted that many in Afghanistan “blame U.S.-led forces for killing too many civilians.”
While Karzai’s quick, public attacks on the U.S. surprised me, it was predictable that Karzai would resent, and negatively react to, Obama’s clumsy, patronizing, and undiplomatic public scolding of Karzai’s leadership. Obama’s pattern is that he “apologizes to the country’s enemies while alienating its friends,” as I noted in “America’s First Teenage President.”
There are at least two truths that motivated my satirical post. First, Obama is a diplomatic as well as a domestic failure. Many former supporters in the U.S. have begun to recognize the scope of the threat Obama represents to the freedom, prosperity, and security of our country. His blunders in international relations continue to weaken our standing.
Second, the war in Afghanistan is a terrible mistake. Obama’s personal arrogance only worsens the perception of a reality, i.e., our government’s arrogance in believing it can, or even should, rebuild the nation of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan itself will have to address how it can deter corruption, how it should be governed, and how to cope with the fact that the growing of poppies for opium is a significant part of its economy. It is naïve and inappropriate for us to endeavor to rebuild the country. The futile mission comes with the sad loss of life for both Afghans and our military personnel. It also comes with a squandering of our wealth, or, more accurately, the taking on of additional debt burdens we cannot afford.
The rationale for the war, ensuring that Afghanistan is not a haven for terrorists, is unsound. Terrorists continue to pop up throughout the world and even throughout the U.S. They are not geographically constrained, so a strategy focused on geography will fail, and will often be counter-productive.
The Journal today, April 7th, has an editorial on Obama’s mishandling of relations with Afghanistan, “The Karzai Fiasco.” While the Journal captures well Obama’s failures in dealing with Karzai, it continues to support a war that those of us with a libertarian viewpoint generally reject.
It is one thing to pursue terrorists, or to launch surgical strikes against actual threats. It is, however, another thing to try to rebuild a nation. This mission is both foolish and tragic.
