What exactly are we doing in Afghanistan?

Another voice questioning what exactly can we do in Disintegrationstan, i.e. Afghanistan: an article by Rory Stewart in the latest London Review of Books. Stewart, former soldier and diplomat knows about nation building, and he knows about Afghans.

… there are no self-evident connections between the key objectives of counter-terrorism, development, democracy/state-building and counter-insurgency. Counter-insurgency is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for state-building... Nor is there any necessary connection between state-formation and terrorism... It is impossible for Britain and its allies to build an Afghan state. They have no clear picture of this promised ‘state’, and such a thing could come only from an Afghan national movement, not as a gift from foreigners. Is a centralised state, in any case, an appropriate model for a mountainous country, with strong traditions of local self-government and autonomy, significant ethnic differences, but strong shared moral values? And even were stronger central institutions to emerge, would they assist Western national security objectives? (...) From a narrow (and harsh) US national security perspective, a poor failed state could be easier to handle than a more developed one: Yemen is less threatening than Iran, Somalia than Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan than Pakistan.
Yet the current state-building project, at the heart of our policy, is justified in the most instrumental terms – not as an end in itself but as a means towards counter-terrorism… In pursuit of this objective, Obama has so far committed to building ‘an Afghan army of 134,000 and a police force of 82,000’, and adds that ‘increases in Afghan forces may very well be needed.’ US generals have spoken openly about wanting a combined Afghan army-police-security apparatus of 450,000 soldiers (in a country with a population half the size of Britain’s). Such a force would cost $2 or $3 billion a year to maintain; the annual revenue of the Afghan government is just $600 million. We criticise developing countries for spending 30 per cent of their budget on defence; we are encouraging Afghanistan to spend 500 per cent of its budget.

Stewart has no answer to the question of how we prevent the incubation of terrorists, but he says important things about Afghanistan. His opinion encourages all those who are imaging a change in Afghanistan: less Karzai, less centralism, less islamism, less money from abroad; more local leaders, more federalism, more pluralism, economic freedom and self help and locally directed improvements.
More disintegration, more hope. Let's imagine the future of Afghani more similar to Switzerland's cantons.
From Disintegrationstan to Afghani-land.

Uighur rebellion will foster human rights in China

Tensions are running high in East Turkestan under Chinese domination (Xinjiang). Uighurs are watching with despair the demolition of their ancient historical sites and cultural heritage. Uighurs feel that Han immigrants to Xinjiang are depriving them of a future of selfgovernment and freedom. Dominat elites in Beijing are obsessed about the control of the entire territory of People's Republic of China. But they will lose the control and the power. Times are changing. The rebellion of Uighurs, along with Tibetan resistance, is not terrorism, not at all. It will foster the universal rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. For those who have time for a deepening, I recall some words written by Dru C. Gladney since 1995 (and some other written even before...): http://www.sp.unipi.it/files/2803-disintegration-as-hope-02-2006-03-10-china.pdf.

Yes, he can

A black social worker is the 44° president of the United States of America.
Yes, he can make many mistakes. Too much rethoric, too much idealism...
But he is the living proof of how inclusive and open is our Western society.
Let's wish he will resist the temptation of doing too much!
Let's hope he will reigns, instead of ruling.
Nobody can rule this time of disintegration, this world that has become an Estremistan.
In this world so many human beings - much more than in every other time of known history - have conquered their own independence.
They want to rule themselves, for themselves, by themselves.
They deserve a president who did not menace their inalienable rights and among these their life, liberty, property, pursuit of happiness.
Let's learn to be less Lincoln, and more Jefferson, and Barak Obama will be good enough, also for us, who prefered Mc Cain...

Disintegrationstan

I read some meaningful pages in Hosseini's "The Kite Runner". I was astonished for the novel is very esplicit, about something most of the so-called international analysts and experts are blind to: Afghanistan, as a contemporary state, ruled by a Pashto elite, harshly divided among ethnic groups, religious rivalries, castes and social classes, partly unified by a broad diffusion of Farsi dialects, lasted till 1973. The young, fragile, artificial political construction aborted when king Zahir Shah's brother-in-law, Mohammed Daoud Khan, launched a bloodless coup, to became the first president of another banana republic.

Afghanistan then definitely became Disintegrationstan.

We have a problem.

Are we, the free Nations, fighting there to prevent the establishment of a modern Caliphate under islamofascist regime, or are we substaining an impossible rebirth of then aborted Afghanistan?

Are we there to capture key al-Quaeda leaders, or to let an oldminded, short-sighted Pashto elite to keep the power they wouldn't have without our sacrifices?

Tutu embedded in Gaza Asymmetric War

Desmond Tutu released his comments in a final report to the UN Human Rights Council, which had sent him to Gaza to investigate the killings in Beit Hanoun in November 2006.

On the three-day visit, Tutu and his team visited the ruined house, interviewed the survivors and met others in Gaza, including the senior Hamas figure and former prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh. At the time, Tutu said he wanted to travel to Israel to hear the Israeli account of events, but he was not permitted. Israel did not grant the archbishop or his team a visa. They entered Gaza in May this year on a rare crossing from Egypt.

Tutu said the Israeli attack, which hit the Athamna family house, showed "a disproportionate and reckless disregard for Palestinian civilian life".

"In the absence of a well-founded explanation from the Israeli military - which is in sole possession of the relevant facts - the mission must conclude that there is a possibility that the shelling of Beit Hanoun constituted a war crime," Tutu said in his report.

Tutu also said that rockets fired by Palestinian militants into southern Israel should stop and should be investigated. "Those firing rockets on Israeli civilians are no less accountable than the Israeli military for their actions," he said.

First, let's accuse Israel of war crime. Later, let's mildly blame those who are firing Sderot.

Another episode of asymmetric warfare.

Words can kill as well as knives.

Refugees from South Ossetia

After the careless Georgian attempt to modify the status quo in South Ossetia, the fighting has forced thousands of South Ossetians to flee. Many of them look towards Moscow for help. Fear is etched on every face as they find shelter in a refugee camp at Alagher in North Ossetia. Others are escaping toward Georgia... Those who make people fleeing, will be obliged to flee in exchange...

Olympic records

The beginning Olympic games of Beijing have already set a new record: Al Jazeera is talking, every night, of Tibet's selfgovernment, freedom of religion in China, human rights throughout the People's Republic. Even about gay rights! Yes. Isn't it one of those once-in-lifetime's little victories?