At 10:37 PM 5/15/2004 -0500 Dan Minette wrote: >The US has gotten the reputation of ADD in foreign affairs. We're good at >getting in and out, and bad at the long detailed needed in nation building.
As evidenced, of course, by our track record in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, and the FYR Macedonia. >Instead, 2.5 years later, we have a country that is mostly controlled by >warlords, where illegal drug trade is clearly the best chance farmers have >to make any money at all, and that is slowly recovering. We are spending >less on rebuilding Afgainstan in a year than we are spending in Iraq in a >week. (We are probably spending a significantly greater amount on our >military presence.) This just in, "Building Afghanistan" (note "rebuilding" is hardly appropriate in this case) is going to be long and difficult. Film at Eleven. I don't know if *you* thought that a country with almost no infrastructure and no industry to speak of would be able to resist the allure of the drug trade in a way in which, say, Bolivia has not - but I was certainly under no such illusions. I also don't know if *you* thought that tha the Taliban, the warlords, Al Qaeda, and other assorted Islamo-fascists would simplyfade into the mountains and let Afghanistans transition to democracy be peaceful in a way in which, say, elections in India and Pakistan are not - but I was certainly under no such illusions. Lastly, it is classic liberal thinking to define the success of an effort in terms of the dollars being spent. I udnerstand that the goal of the study - and it is essentially a laudable goal - is to try and get as much aid sent to Afghanistan as possible. Nevertheless, despite the nittering nabobs of negativity President Bush's foreign policy has done more to bring more freedom and development to more people of the world than any President since FDR. For that he should be lauded. JDG
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