Interessert i nyanserte og kvalifiserte synspunkter på krigen i Afghanistan? Professor William R. Polk, en av president Kennedys rådgivere under Cuba-krisen, har skrevet et åpent brev til president Barack Obama:
In recent events I see an opportunity to accomplish American objectives while avoiding a course of action that could derail plans for your presidency, just as the Vietnam War ruined the presidency of Lyndon Johnson.
Sovjetimperiet gikk til grunne i Afghanistan. Og etterlot en arv;
The brutal Soviet occupation shattered the Afghan social structure. Nearly one in ten Afghans was killed or died, and more than 5 million fled the country. Living wretchedly in refugee camps, mainly in Pakistan, hundreds of thousands of young Afghan men were “reshaped.” Like the biblical Children of Israel after forty years in the wilderness, these Afghans emerged very different from their fathers. The new generation kept their stern code of belief, but they lost touch with the humanizing aspects of growing up in families. Living apart from mothers and sisters, many of the young men, mostly Pashtuns, were incorporated into male-only madrassas in which they were housed, fed, armed and radicalized. They emerged as the foot soldiers of the Taliban.
William R. Polks brev gir bra bakgrunn for egne meninger. Men aner at den beslutningen president Obama nå er i ferd med å ta om amerikansk politikk i Afghanistan, trolig er en av de mest skjebnetunge i hans presidentperiode.
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