Is Nation Building Moral?
“Many condemn nation-building, not so much because it’s wrong as because it’s impossible. Cultures run too deep, they say, to change from the outside. No weapon or army is stronger than a people’s will to resist. Just consider Afghanistan (twice), Vietnam, or the collapse of European empires.” - Breakpoint
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A bit more from the article…
Every society, however, is built on and around ideas, many of which are so deeply ingrained, either by history or religion or both, that they go unspoken. Changing them is not impossible, but it is also not easy.
I don’t think we were wrong to attempt what we did in Afghanistan. It was a worthy vision. The main problem with the effort though is, ironically, our freedom. We were trying to build a free(er) society there but our own freedom means we can’t sustain that kind of vision across multiple administrations and shifts in Congress, much less the views of voters, all of which are only a little more stable than the weather.
I doubt a free society can stay on task long enough to build another free society where they’ve been authoritarian for centuries. But I also think that repeated failures are not proof something is impossible. I still see it as a noble ideal, sometimes worth attempting to achieve, though the price is high.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
…of our own noses appears to be a lot of the issue. A good example was that our military efforts to build a new Afghan military more or less presumed that they’d always have airpower support. For whatever reason, though, we didn’t end up actually training the Afghans to maintain the aircraft, and hence when U.S. support ended, their air force was pretty much grounded, and the army collapsed. We either needed to train Afghans to maintain aircraft (possibly a very dangerous proposition), or teach them to fight a guerrilla war without air support.
It seems that we’ve made the same basic error with regards to building a society. The elephant in the room in Afghanistan is a “Dark ages” version of Islam that will fight to the death for their view of life. So to build a modern nation, you’ve got to convince people that that particular view of the world is false.
With our 1st Amendment, our government cannot do that. So nation-building there is going to be a matter of missionaries, and likely a few miracles.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
[Joeb]
What’s IRONIC it’s not the LEFT who is going to destroy our Democracy it’s the White Evangelical Trump Christian Nationalists and White Supremacist Thugs the Trump Evangelicals have openly and with full knowledge embraced.
I agree with this statement and it is my biggest fear to see Trump back in office. I am not a fan of Biden, but my fear of Trump, trumps (no pun intended), my concerns with Biden.
I don’t agree with the entire premise of this article. I think there are times when nation building is successful. South Korea, Japan, Israel, East Germany… I don’t think they are the same as the Middle East. Afghanistan in the end didn’t really want a country to be built. The fact that less than 30,000 fighters took over a heavily fortified city with over 4.5 million in population without a shot being fired is crazy. The government collapsed after a single Taliban stepped foot in the capital. Crazy.
[dgszweda]I agree with this statement and it is my biggest fear to see Trump back in office. I am not a fan of Biden, but my fear of Trump, trumps (no pun intended), my concerns with Biden.
Trump back in office is your biggest fear? Wow. I’d prefer to have someone else run against Biden next election, but I would take Trump again ANY DAY over Biden, seeing the destruction Biden has managed to wreak in our country and its standing in the world in just 8 months. I would say my lack of faith and trust in the Biden presidency (IMO well founded given his actions since the inauguration) trumps MY concerns with having Donald Trump as president.
In reality, I suspect that Biden won’t be able to run again. It’s clear he’s not really in charge now. I’ll be shocked if he actually lasts the whole term. The question is who is pulling the strings and who would replace him. That person might be much worse than Biden. I hope the opposition can pick someone who can defeat the next Democrat candidate, is a strong leader, and a truly conservative candidate.
Dave Barnhart
Trump attempted to overthrow our Government with Corruption and Force
Investigations so far have concluded this is not true.
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