Musings on Pashtunistan.
Some thoughts after looking at America doing its darnest deliberation over how to actually proceed with the Afghanistan mission, and that bungled joke of an election held recently. I think it's beginning to look very clear that certain perceptions of what a successful rebuilding effort in Afghan governance is, may need to change. The way that Karzai had to go on television to announce a run-off, is inherently at odds with Afghan and Pashtun culture of rulership, where legitimacy is granted, enhanced and made effective through a display of power and a strong hand.
Well, of course, unless Abdullah Abdullah (I kid you not, that's the name of the other Presidential candidate), being ethnically Tajik , is the soon-to-be anointed son of NATO because of his Northern links that might come in handy should cooperation be needed with the growing influence of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.. I wonder.
I hope Pashtunistan doesn't become another Vietnam, and this time, the Taliban are no Viet Cong.
CFR: Painting Democracy in Afghanistan
Thomas H. Johnson, Director, Culture and Conflict Studies, Naval Postgraduate School
....Anybody that knows the history of Afghanistan will recognize the fact that they've practiced pure Greek democracy at the village level for two millennia. There's almost an American arrogance here thinking that we could come in and install Jeffersonian representative democracy on this country. It's also extremely important to recognize that the entire election fiasco of August has [set] any type of movement toward democracy back in Afghanistan.
What do you think the Afghans are thinking about who went to the polls, in some cases risking their well-being and the well-being of their family? Now they're waiting to hear what's going to happen two months later. My final point is that if we're going to have a special election for city council in Boise, Idaho, you couldn't pull it off in two weeks.
What makes America and Washington think that they could have a credible rerun of this election process in a two-week period?....
Oh, and it's a wet Sunday morning, good time for the heatwave to disappear..