Hawks and Doves

This whole piece stemmed from my irritation at those who basically assume that any war waged by the US in any circumstance is inherently unjust. I do still feel that the US was fully justified in it's Afghan war. Shame about the aftermath.


So then; Afghanistan. It's certainly been an interesting week over there hasn't it. I confess that 7 days ago I didn't hold out much hope of seeing any real progress against the Taliban (especially upon hearing Dubya's speech; "My fellow Americans, let's roll!" Coupled with his previous "Osama Bin Laden; wanted dead or alive" spiel his choice of words really does make me think that he believes this is a Hollywood production. Maybe he'd just watched Independence Day again, or maybe Ronnie "Alzheimer" Reagan is writing his speeches. Who knows....). And yet here I am having been proved wrong on pretty much every doomsayer's point that I made prior to the bombing. For once I'm rather glad to have been wrong about something (which is unusual for me but when being proved right would have meant the nuclear destruction of western civilisation...well, I'm willing to swallow my pride in the face of that).

Not everyone has been quite to quick to gorge themselves on humble pie however. Sunday will see a CND organised anti-war march through London, which they claim will garner massive support. A few dissident Labour MP's are still beating their anti-war drums (although not George Galloway. This moustachioed Scots MP, who was awarded 15 minutes of fame for meeting with Saddam Hussein to express his vociferous opposition to sanctions on Iraq, huffed and puffed in Parliament about how and why the British people *demanded* a stop to the bombing. He has been conspicuous by his absence since the fall of Kabul. Maybe he's planning to invite Omar and Bin Laden to his Glasgow constituency in a show of solidarity. One can hope that the people of Glasgow show them the same hospitality that was shown to the refugee who was stabbed to death there a couple of months ago). One MP, Tom Dalyell, having argued strenuously that the war was a very bad thing is now saying that the victory of the Coalition (since when did one country make up a coalition? I think our forces fired a couple of missiles but apart from that it's been USA all the way) will destabilise Pakistan and cause nuclear war. Now I thought I was pessimistic but this man really does win the award for sourest grapes of 2001.

That said, I do think that the hawks in this war are being a little premature in their jubilation. Thus far most of the main cities in Afghanistan are no longer under Taliban control but have reverted to their previous state of affairs. This state of affairs was control by independent warlords or titular allies of the Northern Alliance (of whom more later). Coincidentally, this state of affairs was also conspicuous by it's total lack of law and order, social cohesion, and anything remotely resembling peace. So whilst we do have the undoubted benefits of women being able to walk the streets without their suffocating burqa's and the people of Afghanistan being able to enjoy activities that we take for granted (such as listening to music) or that we don't even indulge in any more (flying kites; yes, the Taliban thought that flying kites was a symbol of decadence. I really would hate to go to one of their parties...) we also have to accept that power has been returned to a group of people who made an utter pigs ear of their last attempt.

And, lest we forget, the fat lady has yet to sing where this war is concerned. The Taliban and Al-Quaida terrorist have taken to the mountains to fight a guerilla war. As any member of the Russian military will tell you, they really are quite remarkably good at that sort of thing. A former soldier in the Hereford based SAS wrote an article for the Guardian explaining at length just why the Taliban would be nigh on invincible in their mountain strongholds, and that allied special forces could look forward to being massacred should they attempt to do battle with the Afghans. However, as the SAS soldier in question has since been exposed as a liar who did nothing more dangerous in Hereford than make the tea it is perhaps difficult to give credit to his assertions. To be sure, the veneer of invulnerability that surrounded the Taliban has been shattered in this last week but I still think that we write them off at our peril. And of course Bin Laden and Omar are still at large (although Mullah Omar Mohammed, supreme spiritual leader of the Taliban, showed himself to have the emotional maturity of a spiteful 11 year old in an interview a couple of days ago. He insisted that he would destroy America using a secret plan that was "beyond human comprehension". Which is rather like little Billy Hague answering "I'm not telling" or "You wouldn't understand" when pressed on how he intended to win the election) and thus still dangerous.

Yet although I'm willing to acknowledge that the war is far from won and that there is still a lot of hard work to be done in establishing a working government in, and eliminating Al Quaida from Afghanistan, to hear the anti war brigade (doves to the political right's hawks) speak you would think that this will only be achieved by wading through rivers of Coalition blood. It's almost as if some of them want to see the war lost simply so they can crow about how they were right, whilst others seek proof of their assertions that western government is corrupt and inept (which it is but this is hardly the most desirable time for it to be demonstrated!) Never mind the fact that this would mean interminable years of further oppression for Afghanistan (strangely, the Taliban's treatment of women was a cause celebre among these same people a few short months ago. After the accusations from the left that the government would readily abandon all of it's principles and ideal's simply to get ahead I find it smugly satisfying to see them doing the same thing...) and never mind that it would definitely mean further atrocities like Sept 11th. Just as long as they aren't shown to have been wrong, that's what's important.

However, let's not allow the political right to claim victory just yet. The Northern Alliance, upon whom so much has depended in this war, were only formed as a group after the Taliban took Kabul in the 90's. Before that they were a disparate bunch of selfish and amoral bandits who fought among themselves with little thought or regard for the people of Afghanistan. All they craved was power. Believe it or not, the Taliban were actually welcomed into Kabul as they promised stability! And now they are running Kabul again. Theoretically there will be a UN peacekeeping force there soon and they will assist in the setting up of a government that will represent all of the ethnic groups there. But the Alliance are already making disquieting noises about such a move being unnecessary as they will restore democracy to Afghanistan. To believe this would be rather like taking Hitler at his word if he were to say that he would restore the synagogues of Germany.

America is shying away from being part of the peacekeeping force which will be made up of troops from Moslem nations, and rightly so as it avoids many accusations of American imperialism. It does however leave them open to the accusations from the left of taking what they want from Afghanistan and then discarding it regardless of what will happen afterwards. Abraham Lincoln made a famous quote about fooling some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time. I think it applies equally well to pleasing the political right and left about this war; the west can please most of the hawks some of the time, and none of the doves all of the time. Let's just hope that this really is a war to end all wars, if for no other reason than the blinkered refusal by some of the doves to accept that mankind hasn't evolved sufficiently to consign conflict and warfare to history. This refusal to accept reality means that in the future the west will be hamstrung by the wrenching of hearts before an inaccurate bomb is dropped in anger.