For fuck's sake, the Middle-Eastern countries aren't some Durkadurkastani collective, they're individual countries with different political and cultural environments, just like Europe.*
Iraq was a dictatorship, but at least people could live under Saddam without being slain by street gangs (for the most part) and enjoy their TVs and cellphones. Then, America stomped in, removed the stabilizing force and basically wrecked a lot of shit. In their brilliance the Iraqi Army, possibly the only unified and disciplined body, was disbanded completely and rebuilt from scratch. With random people. Often 'former' militia members.
The new government is a joke, they have no power at all in actuality (not to mention that a large portion of the governing body are 'former' warlords). The police force is just as bad, they're paid like shit and supporting the Americans is like painting a huge target on your head. If that doesn't seem like a recipe for corruption, I don't know what is.
In short, now instead of wrecking shit by themselves, America also has proxies to wreck shit for them. People are, understandably, a little pissed about this turn of events.
Afghanistan was a country run by the oppressive Taliban and they didn't have infrastructure for things like water and electricity. So in the worst case scenario, we fuck it up and the country falls into the hands of warlords that run around killing indiscriminately, all it means is that it's back to where it began!
People are genuine in their wishes for NATO to stay because for once there is someone there to protect them from gunmen and build them facilities that are taken for granted by us.
Well there are some of those in Iraq too, but that's only because America wrecked their shit, then armed and trained 'former' gang members to wreck more shit.
Not to say that there aren't a lot of fuck ups in Afghanistan (I could go on a a whole tirade on the drug trade), but the most important thing is that the country is actually improving as opposed to the Sisyphean task of America piecing together all the shit they wrecked again.
The worst part is that if the US didn't go into Iraq, the 100 000 troops would do wonders in Afghanistan, a place where they could actually do some good. Instead now, NATO is struggling to cover things with the limited resources they have against a wave of negative sentiment on war. With Canada, a major contributor of troops, considering withdrawal in 2009, god knows what's going to happen over there.
tl;dr:
Iraq = America wrecking shit.
Afghanistan = NATO attempting to rebuild while Western opinion has been tainted by images of America wrecking shit.
Bonus game: Spot the recurring theme! Win a prize!†
Iraq was a dictatorship, but at least people could live under Saddam without being slain by street gangs (for the most part) and enjoy their TVs and cellphones. Then, America stomped in, removed the stabilizing force and basically wrecked a lot of shit. In their brilliance the Iraqi Army, possibly the only unified and disciplined body, was disbanded completely and rebuilt from scratch. With random people. Often 'former' militia members.
The new government is a joke, they have no power at all in actuality (not to mention that a large portion of the governing body are 'former' warlords). The police force is just as bad, they're paid like shit and supporting the Americans is like painting a huge target on your head. If that doesn't seem like a recipe for corruption, I don't know what is.
In short, now instead of wrecking shit by themselves, America also has proxies to wreck shit for them. People are, understandably, a little pissed about this turn of events.
Afghanistan was a country run by the oppressive Taliban and they didn't have infrastructure for things like water and electricity. So in the worst case scenario, we fuck it up and the country falls into the hands of warlords that run around killing indiscriminately, all it means is that it's back to where it began!
People are genuine in their wishes for NATO to stay because for once there is someone there to protect them from gunmen and build them facilities that are taken for granted by us.
Well there are some of those in Iraq too, but that's only because America wrecked their shit, then armed and trained 'former' gang members to wreck more shit.
Not to say that there aren't a lot of fuck ups in Afghanistan (I could go on a a whole tirade on the drug trade), but the most important thing is that the country is actually improving as opposed to the Sisyphean task of America piecing together all the shit they wrecked again.
The worst part is that if the US didn't go into Iraq, the 100 000 troops would do wonders in Afghanistan, a place where they could actually do some good. Instead now, NATO is struggling to cover things with the limited resources they have against a wave of negative sentiment on war. With Canada, a major contributor of troops, considering withdrawal in 2009, god knows what's going to happen over there.
tl;dr:
Iraq = America wrecking shit.
Afghanistan = NATO attempting to rebuild while Western opinion has been tainted by images of America wrecking shit.
Bonus game: Spot the recurring theme! Win a prize!†
*I considered putting in a Polish joke there, I opted not to in the end.
†Not really.
No comments:
Post a Comment