The United Nations has declared 2010 as the bloodiest year for the Afghan people since the US-led invasion 10 years ago. The damning UN report comes amidst growing protests in Afghanistan over the unacceptable rate of civilian casualties, including 9 children who were recently slain by NATO forces as they gathered firewood.
It has been a long decade for the Afghan people. Now, with more occupying NATO soldiers than ever before, the empirical results don’t seem to justify the military campaign. With both Afghan and NATO casualties at an all time high, the coalition’s plan to withdraw in 2014 doesn’t inspire much hope in seeing a halt to this trend.
The cost of war in Afghanistan is approaching $400,000,000,000. These hundreds of billions could have been used to build up the Afghan communities from within. These fortunes might have gone to programs that empower women, improve social services, and increase the nation’s infrastructure. We could have funded productive and effective ways to help the Afghan people help themselves.
Instead, we sent in armed troops to try and kill off all the ‘bad guys’, unaware that attempts to do so would actually create more enemies than we could eliminate. Now, even if NATO forces happen to attain some breakthroughs or progress, the positives will likely be negated by the overall resentment from within the Afghan population.
It is time to rethink foreign policy, so that we don’t find ourselves trapped in this kind of mess again. Rather than relying solely upon a strategy that involves deploying large numbers of armed occupiers, we should focus our efforts on empowering states from within. This way, the world’s oppressed will eventually rise up and reclaim control of their nations all by themselves.
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Tags: afghanistan, nato, peace, war
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