...and returns with his scepticism about America's project in Afghanistan considerably leavened:
In the first place, the Afghan people want what we want. They are, as Lord Byron put it, one of the few people in the region without an inferiority complex. They think they did us a big favor by destroying the Soviet Union and we repaid them with abandonment. They think we owe them all this. That makes relations between Afghans and foreigners relatively straightforward. Most military leaders here prefer working with the Afghans to the Iraqis. The Afghans are warm and welcoming. They detest the insurgents and root for American success. “The Afghans have treated you as friends, allies and liberators from the very beginning,” says Afghanistan’s defense minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak.
As ever, it's a fascinating read. I found Brooks's conclusion slightly puzzling though. He applauds Obama for not giving up on the idea that America's military and civil power can be used to promote democracy. This is hard to square with the explicitly limited war aims of the new policy. On the face of it Obama has given up on promoting Afghan democracy, and settled for the objective of destroying or at least nullifying the forces of terrorism in that country.
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