Eggs Laid by Tigers
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Outline of a new strategy in Afghanistan?
Here's Afghanistan, as it appears to three of our GIs, in a New York Times story today. Pretty desolate, isn't it? It seems incredible that such a country has successfully resisted conquest by, in recent times, the British, the Russians, and now by us. How is it possible? It is as if impoverished South Texas were to resist the might of the U.S. government.One possible reason is that we attempt to do too much. Bushco attempted Nation Building im Afghanistan, but "[i]f we set ourselves the objective of creating some sort of Central Asian Valhalla over there, we will lose,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates now believes. The Times article hints at Hussein's new strategy for Afghanistan and makes for interesting reading. The new strategy is to be unveiled in April.
President Karzai comes in for plenty of complaints for what is seen by Western Powers as corruption, but which seems to me to be no more than pashtunwali writ large.
Remember that traditionally Pashtun, the predominant ethnic group in Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan, live is large, fortified houses controlled by a senior male, and have a code that puts maintaining"honor" above all other virtues. "Honor" includes killing anyone who insults your household, increasing the land -- and by extension the wealth -- of your household, and acquiring more wealth for yourself even if by killing a relative. Sorta like the Central Texas Code of Honor in the late 1800s, only of a much longer duration. (We are mere shadows of our former selves, inone view.)
Pashtunwali has enabled the Pashtun people to hold off invaders from the time of Alexander the Great, and there have been lots of would-be invaders in those thousands of years. There is a small community in Chitral that still speaks a version of Persian used by Alexander the Great.
I think that plans to make the Karzai government less "corrupt"are doomed to failure: Karzai is simply applying his, and his compatriots, code of Honor to the situation as they find it. If we depose Karzai, I think it unlikely that his successor will be more successful at eliminating poppy production than Karzai is, for example. Which is why the new policy outlined in the Times article makes a bit more sense to me, though I still have me doubts about it.
Pashtun kids -- our enemy?
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Here's one definition of pashtunwali, given by Yahoo. There are many. Wikipedia has a longer discussion of it, and there are scholarly articles of interest, too.
Pashtunwali is the Pashtun code of life. The Pashtun, speaking an east Iranian dialect called Pashto, live on both sides of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Although predominantly Muslim, the Pashtun live according to a cultural code, Pashtunwali, which demands courage, hospitality (e.g., giving shelter to anyone who seeks protection), and revenge—unless the aggressor seeks public pardon. Pashtunwali, however, never forgives shame-causing crimes, especially those involving a woman's honor. Pashtun society is well known for its generations-long cycles of revenge murder. Conflict resolution in the case of murder involves public pardon, forgiveness, the ceding of land, or the giving in marriage of a woman from the aggressor's family to a member of the aggrieved family. Pashtunwali is driven by nang (honor) and tor (shame). As a compendium of cultural customs, Pashtunwali guides a Pashtun's every public behavior and action. Sometimes its many expectations make it difficult for even the staunchest Pashtun to live by the letter and spirit of the Pashtunwali code. "To be a Pashtun is a curse," says a Pashto proverb, "but not to be a Pashtun is a shame."
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