February 01, 2008 ... Camp basket case.

After a 6-year effort, and with the prospect of a further 25-year commitment to follow, the current status of Afghanistan is ridiculously bad. There is a non-functioning government riven by corruption and financed by a combination of international aid and drug money. A hardline Islamic constitution which permits the sentencing of Afghans to death for even looking at and/or discussing women’s rights is in place. And the Taliban are as strong as ever they were, even though they do not have direct control of the capital, which, vis-à-vis the African model of state recognition by way of who controls the capital, bolsters the pretence of a viable Afghan state. It is no wonder that Germany is highly reluctant to commit combat troops to Afghanistan.

There are, of course, some examples of a comparative improvement to the lives of a tiny number of Afghans. Even so, the principle of holding non-Afghan lives and/or their property hostage to the demands of a corrupt Afghan government headed by an ineffectual President Hamid Karzai is immoral and counterproductive for Afghans and non-Afghans.

Left to their own choices, the majority of Afghans will align themselves accordingly without any need for democracy or a divisive and polarising central government. Others will choose to flee Afghanistan and seek their fortunes elsewhere, within the region, in Europe, or the United States.

The notion that Afghanistan must be pacified along western democratic lines, in order to lessen the likelihood of terrorism beyond Afghanistan’s boundaries towards ourselves in the United Kingdom and/or the EU is erroneous. Such terrorism is best confronted where it occurs, with a combination of decisive force and prompt expatriation for foreign and home-grown enemy combatants. This argument is based upon the principle that we elect a government to secure our right to life and property for our own self-interest and subsequent well being, and not to have our lives and property become hostage to the benefit gained by a minority of others who have been placed in a position of political authority because it is convenient for our government.

I short, it is time to say: ‘Stop it’.