<
https://theconversation.com/9-11-anniversary-democracy-was-not-doomed-to-fail-in-afghanistan-the-us-did-not-live-up-to-its-promises-290807>
"After the signing of the Munich agreement in 1938 that allowed Nazi Germany to
annex part of Czechoslovakia, Winston Churchill spoke of the fate of that
country in a powerful speech in the House of Commons:
Silent, mournful, abandoned, broken, Czechoslovakia recedes into the
darkness.
The same could now be said of Afghanistan, 25 years after the September 11
attacks and subsequent US invasion that forever changed the country.
Sadly, there is now little inclination in Western policy circles to reflect
deeply on Afghanistan’s experiences since then.
All too often, one instead encounters orientalist stereotypes that imply the
post-2001 experiment with democracy was always doomed to fail, depicting the
Taliban as somehow the true embodiment of “Afghan culture”.
This is despite the fact the Asia Foundation, in its highly regarded
Survey of
the Afghan People, reported that 88% of respondents in 2021 had “no sympathy
at all” for the Taliban.
Afghanistan’s experience after 2001 deserves more careful study than this, if
only because it offers useful lessons for the future."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
