Greg Sheridan: West Replicates Soviet War in Afghanistan

Greg Sheridan is the foreign editor of The Australian.

The first is a statement of intent by an Afghan government official: "Our aim was, no less, than to give an example to all the backward countries of the world of how to jump from feudalism straight to a prosperous, just society . . . Our very first proclamation declared that food and shelter are the basic needs and rights of a human being. . . . Our program was clear: land for the peasants, food for the hungry, free education for all . . . For the first time in Afghanistan's history, women would be given the right to education. We told them that they owned their bodies, they could marry whom they liked, they shouldn't have to live shut up in houses like pets."

The second is a reflection by an intelligent, if idealistic, young journalist, sent to cover the foreign intervention. He witnesses a display of parachute jumping, by Afghan women, in the main stadium in Kabul, and writes: "There is a striking contrast which is only possible here: many of the women on the terraces conceal their faces under the chador - a primitive, medieval superstition; but parachutists are landing in the stadium and they are women too, who grew up in this country. The chador and the parachute. You don't have to be a prophet to foretell the victory of the parachute."

And finally, here is a newspaper report covering the welcome home for a large military unit after 10 years of involvement in Afghanistan: "An orchestra played as the nation welcomed the return of her sons. Our boys were coming home after fulfilling their international obligations.

For 10 years (our) soldiers in Afghanistan repaired, rebuilt and constructed hundreds of schools, technical colleges, over 30 hospitals and a similar number of nursery schools, some 400 blocks of flats and 35 mosques. They sank dozens of wells and dug nearly 150km of irrigation ditches and canals. They were also in charge of guarding military and civilian institutions in trouble."

There you have three central elements of the US-led coalition strategy in Afghanistan, of which Australia has long been a part. The first element is a local, Afghan government focused on development and offering unprecedented rights and opportunities for Afghan women. The second is the gift of hi-tech modernity, in this case captured by the journalist in the image of parachutes, and the contrast with the medievalism of the chador. Who can doubt that modernity beats feudalistic obscurantism?

And finally, a proud military record of civic construction, of a military which turned its hand to development and economic improvement, in the classic manner of counter-insurgency.

You might guess by now that there's something wrong with all three of these examples...