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Afghan Recovery
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, the King of Afghanistan embarked on a serious program of liberalization for his ancient land. He substantially loosened the laws regarding burkas and other forms of social control. He initiated legal reforms to cut down on corruption. He allowed women to receive educations. He expanded the parliament, and intimated that he intended to convert the country to a Constitutional Monarchy, voluntarily giving up most of his enormous power. Kabul, in particular, developed a reputation for being a loose, hip, cosmopolitan sort of place, with the fleshpots of Babylon easily savored, and friendly relations with Westerners as well as the Soviet bloc....there's more! Unfortunately, as awful as it sounds, the move toward democracy was probably a terrible mistake. The Soviet Union had designs on Afghanistan. As they so often did, they infiltrated the democratically elected government, and helped to engineer a coup. The King was toppled. Afghan communists took over and more or less destroyed the parliament. However, they faced internal friction and resistance from non-communists. Within a couple of years, under the guise of bringing "stability," the Soviets rolled in with tanks and took over--coincidentally killing many of the communists who they had helped just a few years earlier. During the Soviet occupation, between 1.5 and 2 million Afghans were killed, out of a population of about 15 million. Millions more were dislocated. As always happened under communist rule, the economy was destroyed, and brutal repression reigned supreme. Political dissidents were routinely tortured and killed. The Soviets had all sorts of innovative methods for "pacifying" villages that were suspected of collaborating with rebels. One was to kidnap a woman, take her up a few hundred feet in a helicopter above her village, strip her naked, and push her out the door. The Soviets would also do things like leave toys laying around the countryside for children to find--said toys being wired to bombs that would dismember or kill any child foolish enough to try to pick them up. A standard method of "pacifying" a particularly troublesome village was to walk into town with tanks and troops, and start chucking grenades into people's homes. Then they'd shoot anyone--any age, any sex, armed or unarmed--who fled out the doors. Literally millions were killed, while the Soviets simply took all the oil and food and other goods they could from the country. The U.S. helped the resisters with weapons and money, and was instrumental to getting the Soviets to finally pull out. Then, unfortunately, we left the country alone to the remaining warlords, which allowed bin Laden and the Taliban to take power within a few years of the Soviet exit. You can argue that we should have stayed to help them rebuild after the communists were driven out. Then again, many would have called that "imperalism." In any case, it was the 1990s, the Cold War was over, and America spent a decade turning inward. I continue to be irritated when some wag who thinks he knows something talks about how we "helped bin Laden back in the 1980s," as if that means something. I still hear this stuff on a semi-regular basis, and it's very depressing. Bin Laden was one of many anti-Soviet resisters we worked with. We never knew what he was going to become. Although we knew some of the resisters we helped were thugs, we knew the Soviets were worse. It was right to help them. I also continue to be irritated when I hear people comparing America's current presence in Afghanistan with the Soviet occupation. It's not comparable. It's not even close. Not long ago, a teacher at my university tried this in class. I cringed and tried hard not to sound angry when I pointed out how misguided this comparison was. Afghanistan is a shattered nation. It is finally starting to get back to where it was before the communists destroyed it. Indeed, as this Washington Post article on development in Afghanistan shows, the people there are immeasurably better off today. It's starting to, finally, become a functioning society again. It's still got problems. There are still some rebel warlords in the badlands. It's still poverty-stricken and has a long, long way to go. But I wish more people would realize just how much good we've done for the people of that country, while simultaneously cleaning out a hotbed of murdering terrorist thugs. People who think of America as a bloodthirsty nation have a lot of growing up to do. Posted by: Dean Esmay 2003-03-04 |
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