Wilmer J. Leon III: Necessity Isn't Always Just
As Americans usher in a new year and new decade, they find themselves confronted with old problems: war and terror. The epicenter of these problems has shifted from Iraq to Central Asia - Afghanistan/Pakistan....
Political uncertainty continues to control the Afghan parliament and President Hamid Karzai's ability to form a new and stable government. The Afghan parliament rejected 17 of the 24 new cabinet recommendations of President Karzai on the grounds that the nominations were not based upon the qualifications of the individuals, but founded on either bribery or ethnicity. In this new year, it looks like more of the same....
America's problems in Central Asia and other parts of the world as well as the rise of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are a direct result of the Reagan Doctrine. During the1980s, the Reagan administration provided overt and covert training, supplies and aid to right-wing, anti-Soviet militias in Asia and other countries. Using the very short-sighted logic of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," the Reagan administration, supported by conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, supported the mujahideen in their overthrow of the Soviet-backed Najibullah regime, resulting in the creation of a terrible power vacuum. The mujahideen proved to be a capable resistance force, but not capable of establishing a cohesive government....
Afghanistan is a tribally-based, ethnically diverse, nationalistic, religiously fundamental and largely illiterate country with a weak if not nonexistent central government that has been embroiled in a civil war since 1978. Within this civil war, a powerful, anti-American, religiously fundamentalist, narco-funded, resistance force has emerged. This force has changed the traditional state-based war paradigm that America is used to and has exported it to other regions around the globe. It is from the Reagan Doctrine that the necessity of America's involvement is born, not a response to 9/11....