"Nation Building"

     I have been harping on the fact that our government does not have a strategy in the Middle East and is constantly committing missteps.  Readers of my blogs are probably sick of hearing the refrain, "we have no strategy," like a broken record!  Unfortunately it is true, and there are many in our government who feel the same way, but their complaint is ignored and they are viewed as "right wingers" or simply anti-Obama!  The fact remains that whether they are "right wingers" or anti-Obama, they are correct, we have no strategy, and doomed to failure unless we do something about it, develop a sound strategy!
     Just when did this "strategy-less" approach to war in the Middle East begin?  It is difficult to pin-point exactly when, but it is possible to get a general idea.  It began with the Second Iraq War and our abandonment of original strategy in Afghanistan after the resounding success of the Special Operations in the early stages of that war.  Initially when we went into Afghanistan, it was with the idea that the Special Operations would lead the Northern Alliance in an unconventional war, with air support, to destroy and oust the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.  Once that was accomplished, we would maintain the Special Forces to continue to train, advise, and lead the various Northern Alliance groups and let them take the lead in defending their turf and also decide how to govern the country.  No doubt there would have been chaos, power struggles, etc. But it would have all been on their "watch" so to speak, and they would have had to work it out on their own.  Our involvement would have been minimal and confined to Special Forces trainers and advisors and economic aide.  However, once we managed to defeat and oust the Al Qaeda and Taliban, our plans changed. 
     First, we got into the business of nation building, selecting our choice for leader of the country, etc.  Second, everybody (in the military) wanted the piece of the action, all the generals and admirals got into the act.  We poured-in army, navy, and marine corps units, built a huge U.S. military presence with accompanying compounds with fast food chain restaurants and all!  Of course we had to twist the arm of NATO to make it appear as if the whole world agreed with what we were doing. This was not part of the original plan.  The original plan was to defeat the enemy then simply help the Afghans maintain status quo in their own way, no matter how disagreeable it may have been to those in Washington.  No nation building, no U.S. military built-up, no NATO and even some former ComBloc countries!  Did you know that there were even troops from Mongolia?! There were too many hands in the cookie jar, too many fingers poking into the pie!  The military, each  branch, wanted the piece of the action while the civilian leaders wanted to get into "nation building!"  So, what initially started out as a pretty straight forward plan (yes, there was a strategy then!) turned into a muddled, multi-pronged misadventure with no end strategy.
     Nation building is something in which we have been a miserable failure, yet we continue to meddle and try to involve ourselves in this arcane and almost mystical practice!  We are no good at it and should stop trying!  For some reason, we keep pointing at Germany and Japan as examples and try to recreate that post World War Two economic miracle.  All those bright minds in Washington seem to think that we can do the same all over the world, have successes with "nation building," making smaller versions of modern Germany and Japan!  What these bright minds are failing to see is that both Germany and Japan were countries with long histories before we defeated them in the war!  They were independent countries long before United States even existed.  Neither Afghanistan or Iraq have had such illustrious histories in modern times.  They may have been ancient civilizations to contend with in the past, but within the last several centuries have been in chaotic state, constantly invaded and occupied by foreign powers.  Neither country has had any experience in democratic form of government, and most of all, they have always been ruled by dictators!  It is unlikely that most people in the region even know the definition of democracy!  Yet, we come in and expect them to start a sort of a mirror image of what Japan and Germany did after the war.  To make matters worst, we back the most crooked and incompetent of all people to run the countries, because they at least know the definition of democracy, although they may not practice it!
     Now we are stuck.  We can just pull out, abandon the whole thing and pretend it never happened.  But I doubt that even the most liberal administration would be willing to do that, so we are stuck.  But then again, who knows, we may just do that!  We did it in Vietnam, so why not in Iraq or Afghanistan?
     No doubt all these bright minds in Washington envisioned a region that would, with our involvement, become free of dictators and establish democratic systems that will eventually spread throughout or, at least establish regimes that would be friendly.  In many instances, I believe we give up the idea of creating a true democracy and hope for a "friendly" regime that would not give us trouble and provide access to oil!
     We need to stop trying to create countries in our image, to our idea of what they should be.  Look at what happened in Vietnam.  We lost all those lives and destroyed so many families on both sides of the ocean trying to create a Vietnam in our image.  All those lives, all that suffering, and for what?  We are no longer at war with Vietnam and seem to be able to get along with them, albeit not bosom buddies, but at least we are not fighting a war!  We have got to stop this nation building business.  We have got to stop thinking that we have the answer to everything, to everyone's problems.