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bravenewfilms,rethink afghanistan,nation building Congressman Alan Grayson on Afghanistan
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Does this mean you're now against nation-building, NR?
What do you mean "now"?
I grew up hating the way the US treated other countries like chess pieces in a grand game with the Soviet Union. I certainly didn't like the Iraq war, and I'm not particularly clear on what our endgame is supposed to be in Afghanistan, though it appears neither Bush nor Obama are all that clear on that subject either.
My foreign policy preference is a lot closer to "leave people alone" than "invade and destroy other nations and set up pro-American puppet governments" as we have done so often in our recent past.
It's not enough to leave people alone. You can't just sit around and let the Taliban or some other group seize power by force. The population needs protection from other forces that would "cut off the head" of the nation.
However, that's not enough either. If you want to build a nation, a major part of your effort needs to go into building schools. An educated public is a public that religous zealot groups cannot feed off of. That will help a country protect itself more than any paper democracy will.
I'm very proud of the job the Canadian Peacekeepers have done so far, and I'd be happy to see the US army take up the cause. Unfortunately building and protection does not sell billion dollar jets filled with hundred thousand dollar missiles, so I don't think that's where the focus will be when the US returns...
Imagine if the American Revolution didn't happen, and instead France invaded with the stated intention of "freeing" the colonies from England's death grip. You think we would have welcomed them? Well, certainly some may have, but there would be a whole lot who were still loyal to the crown, and others who just flat out resented the intrusion, the French troops walking down the street like they were our saviors. And then they try to set up French style schools and a French style government, and we're all supposed to embrace it and be grateful?
Fortunately that didn't happen to us. Instead, France supported our internal struggle for independence. Which is really the only rational foreign policy that even comes close to nation building.
My impression of him is a highly intelligent, egotistical smartarse, who sees the big issues - and disregards everything else as petty.