HOME | BIO | MUSIC | JOURNEYS BY DJ | STUDIO BLOG | POLITICAL BLOG | BOOKING INFO | CONTACT

These comments from Michael Scheuer, former chief of the CIA's bin Laden unit at the Counterterrorist Center from 1996 to 1999, got me thinking. First, the relevant quote:

The President was sold a bill of goods by George Tenet and the CIA—that a few dozen intel guys, a few hundred Special Forces, and truckloads of money could win the day. What happened is what's happened ever since Alexander the Great, three centuries before Christ: the cities fell quickly, which we mistook for victory. Three years later, the Taliban has regrouped, and there's a strong insurgency. We paid a great price for demonizing the Taliban. We saw them as evil because they didn't let women work, but that's largely irrelevant in Afghanistan. They provided nationwide law and order for the first time in 25 years; we destroyed that and haven't replaced it. They're remembered in Afghanistan for their harsh, theocratic rule, but remembered more for the security they provided. In the end, we'll lose and leave. The idea that we can control Afghanistan with 22,000 soldiers, most of whom are indifferent to the task, is far-fetched. The Soviets couldn't do it with 150,000 soldiers and utter brutality. Before the invasion of Afghanistan, [the military historian] John Keegan said the only way to go there was as a punitive mission, to destroy your enemy and get out. That was prescient; our only real mission there should have been to kill bin Laden and Zawahiri and as many Al Qaeda fighters as possible, and we didn't do it.

Throughout the 1970's and 1980's, one of the central rhetorical themes of the Republican party was "law & order." In election after election it proved quite powerful, helping drive many disaffected blue collar voters into a new conservative coalition that has held together for nearly 30 years. So its always surprised me that, given the importance of the issue for them here at home, they never seem to take it into consideration when managing foreign affairs.

Of course Afghanis are turning to the Taliban for help. We haven't provided them with stability and security, but, whatever their faults, the Taliban once did. And yes, in the long I imagine a democracy would be preferable to many Afghanis, but if they don't believe they and their families are going to survive long enough to see it, well... how many among us would be willing to accept that bargain? Or more to the point, how many "law and order" conservatives would be willing to accept it?