The United States may still be in the Afghanistan and Iraq region for another ten years, according to Gen. George Casey.
“The types of conflict that we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I think are likely to be fighting here for a decade or so, are focused on the people,” Casey, the army’s Chief of Staff, said Friday night at the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival.
“We are not going to succeed in either place by military means alone. You are only going to succeed when the people perceive there is a government represented by their interests, when there is an economy that can give them a job to support their families, when there are educational systems that can educate their family. All those things are essential to the long term success of the military operation.”
(Read more from politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
I think the dollar will collapse before then.
You mean, we’re only going to be there until they have an effective national educational system? Whew, I was beginning to think there was no end in sight.
*indoctrination system.
I think there is a need for the US to be here for another decade. That is, if we want to achieve what Gen. Casey is describing. However, I feel that popular support in the United States, as well as within our partner nations, is running out. I imagine the majority of our forces will be out of Iraq in 18 months, and out of Afghanistan in 3 years.
Gen Casey is right though. There is no quick solution to “winning the war” in either of these failed states. The only way to achieve victory is to take over the education of their children, especially in Afghanistan. The Afghans have failed to educate their children for thousands of years.
There is no need for the negative connotation of such an educational venture. I think referring to it as an “indoctrination system” is a bit much.
Why not give a third party muslim state the authority to manage the education system and implement an internationally agreed upon curriculum? There are several nations in the region willing an able to do so.
Whether or not we should have been here in the first place is a mute point. You can’t come stir up the hornet’s nest and just leave. We have an obligation to make things right, to leave the nation in a better way than we found it.
D
Every centralized institution is vulnerable to become a tool of political manipulation. Despite the noblest intentions of many low level educators involved with the national system being set up in Afghanistan, it will become an indoctrination tool if it is ever gets off the ground.
“You can’t come stir up the hornet’s nest and just leave. We have an obligation to make things right, to leave the nation in a better way than we found it.”
Yes we can, and no we don’t, but thanks for the comment.
To those who do feel an obligation, I’d encourage them to act on the obligation with their own goddamn money.