In many ways, arrogant leftist thinking—indeed, the leftist paradigm in its entirety—led to the disaster that is Afghanistan.
Many, especially those of Afghan background, have made this clear in the aftermath of America’s withdrawal. Consider the words of Baktash Ahadi, an Afghan-American who served as an interpreter for the U.S. military for years:
How could Afghanistan have collapsed so quickly? As a former combat interpreter who served alongside U.S. and Afghan Special Operations forces, I can tell you part of the answer — one that’s been missing from the conversation: culture…. When comparing the Taliban with the United States and its Western allies, the vast majority of Afghans have always viewed the Taliban as the lesser of two evils. To many Americans, that may seem an outlandish claim. But the Americans also went straight to building roads, schools and governing institutions — in an effort to ‘win hearts and minds’ — without first figuring out what values animate those hearts and what ideas fill those minds. We thus wound up acting in ways that would ultimately alienate everyday Afghans.
In other words, because they were oblivious to the importance of culture and convinced that only the material matters—roads, schools, buildings, etc.—American leadership in Afghanistan failed.
Unfortunately, this failure far transcends the few; to increasing numbers of Westerners in general, the word “culture” often conjures at most physical, surface differences—“exotic” food or dress—nothing essential.
In reality, cultures consist of entire and distinct worldviews with their own unique sets of rights and wrongs, often rooted in a religion or philosophy. Cultures bring much more to your town than, say, the convenience of having Indian cuisine down the street. As European historian Hilaire Belloc once explained:
Cultures spring from religions; ultimately the vital force which maintains any culture is its philosophy, its attitude toward the universe; the decay of a religion involves the decay of the culture corresponding to it—we see that most clearly in the breakdown of Christendom today.
Looked at another way, all values prized by the modern West—religious freedom, tolerance, gender equality, monogamy—did not develop in a vacuum but are rather inextricably rooted to Judeo-Christian principles that, over the course of some two millennia, have had a profound influence on Western epistemology, society, and, of course, culture. It’s not for nothing, nor is it a “coincidence” of history, that these values were born and nourished in Western—not Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian, or pagan—nations.
Even so, and due to relativistic type thinking, most Western people assume that all of the aforementioned values are somehow “innate” to all peoples; that, given the proper material circumstances—new roads, schools, health care, prosperity, etc.—all peoples will become just like them, secular materialists (irrespective of their Asian or African cultures/religions, which, again, are seen as limited to food, dress, rituals, ceremonies, and the like).
The great irony is that such thinking is extremely arrogant and ethnocentric—two things that leftists always warn against yet are most guilty of doing. While the conservative acknowledges, for example, that Islam has its own principles, the liberal ignores these, believing instead that Muslims “are just like us.” This view, which arrogantly brushes aside Islam’s role in the Muslim’s life, doesn’t seem ethnocentric because the “us” is not believed to be particular (Western or Christian) but universal.
In short, growing numbers of Western people see themselves as the culmination of human history—“progressive” thinkers who have left all cultural and religious baggage behind—and are convinced that all the peoples of the world are destined to follow their lead and develop like the West, which is no longer seen as a distinct culture but rather the end point of all cultures (given the proper, often material, circumstances).
Thus, and returning to the question of Afghanistan, Western leadership saw its tribal Muslims as embryonic Westerners: whatever their religion or culture dictated, surely these were skin deep; given the proper circumstances, surely the Afghan people’s nascent or innate appreciation for a division between religion and state, feminism, pluralism, and tolerance would eventually take root and blossom.
Put differently, Afghanis (and later Iraqis) were made “in our image” (except, of course, we forget the spiritual and intellectual—in a word, cultural—roots of “our image”).
Always overlooked in this arrogant calculus is that Muslims have their own unique and ancient worldview and set of principles—their own culture—which in turn prompt behavior that is deemed “radical” by Western (falsely assumed to be “universal”) standards.
It was this blind spot to culture that proved disastrous in Afghanistan and, no doubt, will continue to prove disastrous for all such future ventures that ignore the metaphysical and focus only on the physical.
THANKS so much, Raymond, because You ( know A LOT !! and ) write so good. It is a wonderful feeling to read what is in One’s mind so perfectly written.
So, you want to understand¬¬ Afghanistan, huh?
The first thought that comes to mind is, what does Jimmy Carter’s Iranian Embassy take over have in common with Joe Biden’s loss of Afghanistan?
In both cases, the President of the United States saw the opposing government as an equal dedicated to maintaining order. The question never asked was who’s order? One based on Greco-Roman standards for rights? Not hardly. Islamic Caliphates and Muslims are dedicated to forcing Sharia down any person’s belief system. Who does the Taliban see when the Taliban looks at Joe Biden or any other Washington President, except Obama, an equal as in another Islamic or do they see a Christian? In other words, the Taliban sees an Infidel and any representative of the United States is an Infidel. Unless he or she is a Muslim and then he or she will be working in secret to overthrow the Constitution and install Sharia. If you have problems with Muslims working in secret against us, then just look at the number of times Afghan Soldiers we were training and working with setup ambushes and killed our people. How is this possible?
Now would be a good time to look at the Moslem standard for integrity or truth. There are four words you should add to you lexicon:
Notes
The Hadith makes it clear that Muslims are allowed to lie to unbelievers in order to defeat them or protect themselves. There are several forms:
Taqiyya – Saying something that isn’t true as it relates to Muslim identity (i.e., whether one is a Muslim or what that means). This is a Shiite term: the Sunni counterpart is Muda’rat.
Kitman – Lying by omission. An example would be when Muslim apologists quote only a fragment of verse 5:32 (that if anyone kills “it shall be as if he had killed all mankind”) while neglecting to mention that the rest of the verse (and the next) mandate murder in undefined cases of “corruption” and “mischief.”
Tawriya – Intentionally creating a false impression by saying something that is technically true, when knowing that the listener will interpret it in a different way. This practice has a broader application than taqiyya.
Muruna – ‘Blending in’ by setting aside some practices of Islam or Sharia in order to advance others.
Though not called taqiyya by name, Muhammad clearly used deception when he signed a 10-year treaty with the Meccans (known as Hudaibiya) which allowed him access to their city while he secretly prepared his own forces for a takeover. The unsuspecting residents were easily conquered when he broke the treaty two years later. Some of the people in the city who had trusted him at his word were executed. Reference: Taqiyya: Deception and Lying in Islam (thereligionofpeace.com)
I would, also, recommend:
Why Muslim Friends Betray | Frontpagemag
‘It Never Occurred to Us that Muslim Neighbors Would Betray Us…’ – PJ Media
Now you understand how criminally naïve or subverted the State Department was.
Islamic countries view treaties as an opportunity to subvert an enemy or do a work around as Iran is doing in pursuit of the nuclear weapons. Quite successfully I might add. Back to Afghanistan, once President Biden gave the Taliban a timetable, the door was open to push the time table forward. Furthermore, those Islamics, who were working with the Taliban, now knew how long they had to wait before the Taliban could seek revenge and how much weaponry the Taliban was going to get.
So, what was the United States trying to do in Afghanistan? In short, demuslify the country. BUT to do that it takes about fifty years. First, one MUST close all the Madrassahs and large Mosques. Second, you have to de- Islamize the school system. One step with this is to fully integrate the girls into the education system and classroom. Second step is to ban, like Qaddafi did in Libya, the hajib, and the burqa. Either everybody wears the same uniform or something similar. The third step is to teach the actual history of Islam and all the greed, betrayals, murders, lies, slavery, lack of women’s rights, lack of science, or anything positive. It will take at least two full generations before you can begin to hope for something decent.
Another facet is the No-Go Zones. When a mosque is built, Muslims tend to gravitate to the neighborhood. This becomes a No-Go zone as Muslims do not respect infidel property rights. The No-Go Zone becomes an exclusive Muslim Economic Development Zone. The Muslims will gladly take whatever currency is available but will go out of their way to avoid shopping in Infidel stores. The Muslims will force Restaurants to go Halal and raise Hell if something is Kosher
The schools need to redo character building, explain “why” the Holocaust was wrong, explain Genocide, separating religion and science, and explain the “why” of separation of religion and government.
The lack of woman’s rights causes several issues. First women are seen as property and have no right to the children they bear. The children are seen as property as well. See Organ Child Sale in this volume. Second, it is the cause of the sky-high suicide rate among Saudi women, a gilded cage if you will. The problem is so serious that a Qatari Princess fled her country for France. Another troubling aspect is the lack career paths to higher education and opportunities for spiritual and mental fulfilment. The Burqa and the Hajib strip woman of their identity and hyper-sexualize them leading to a rape culture. The lack of women’s sports aggravates medical problems much like China’s foot binding decades past. FGM, better known as Female Genital Mutilation, or the Hafud is another permanent medical problem that Islam forces on Women. Due to an Idiot Judge, it is now being performed in the United States where one state had tried to outlaw the practice. Remember woman not of your Islamic sect are eligible for slavery and being turned into sex slaves or baby factories(the Baby Jihad due to Western Governments Welfare Systems). Remember due to the Hafud, women cannot respond sexually to the physical act. The women in Afghanistan had a glimpse into a brighter future and our withdrawal changed all that and the woman are now back in the 700s.
Prayers five times a day is brainwashing 101. That practice needs to decease as well.
At the same time, until Islam is removed from being a predominant force, you cannot hope to have Democracy as a form of government. Islam is all about alpha males and power. Islam is not a religion, but a political system masquerading as a religion. Democracy requires every voice to be effective and when fifty percent are silenced(women,) Democracy does not reflect the will of the people. I-Slam (what I call Islam) is all about the well-being of the Mullahs, Imams, Ayatollahs, and the other alpha males. Look at how the high-ranking Mullahs in Iran are prospering. Look at the relations in a family, especially concerning the Father or Husband. Physical abuse is rampant, including the Hafud. You must remove the legal protection of family members who kills a female family member over “Honor” violations and hold the police accountable and the courts as well, no more whitewash.
Biden’s retreat undid whatever progress had been made and wasted 20 years. We will be in a continual state of war from now till the end of time because you can never tell when a Muslim will suddenly decide to become a Jihadi. The two countries that have solved the Muslim problem is Japan and Fiji. Both have banned Islam and do not grant Muslims citizenship.
Well said! Rome was not built in a day.
More like an essay there Glen, or a brief but thorough overview, deadly accurate and precise, I’m in complete agreement with all you wrote,thanks much.
Shoot me a few of your references or readings. I’ve read S&S by Raymond and perused Spencer’s History of Islam and a couple of others and read most of Raymond’s posts, which give you almost all you need to know.
Slowly going through Adel Guindy’s ‘A Sword Over the Nile’ plus many vids and lectures.
Good to see your post, hope you’re a regular.
I agree with you Don as always and with everything Glen says certainly “Islam is a political party masquerading as a religion”. Is it true the Japanese don’t grant Muslims citizenship? Clever people not like our so-called leaders in the West except for my favourite Orban. We need more like him in the Western world. He doesn’t want them in Hungary. 150 years of Ottoman occupation were more than enough. Others in Eastern Europe suffered 400 and 500 years. I spent one year in Athens in the early 60s and the saying in the film industry at the time was: “Compared to the Ottomans the Nazi occupation was a matinee peformance – i.e. the early film
performance which children usually attended. I’m afraid all this is going to end in a bloodbath.
The Afghanistan Papers, compiled by a Washington Post reporter from years long interviews by a special inspector general on Afghanistan, opens one’s eyes to American ignorance. Apparently there are three languages in the country – Pashto, Dari, and Uzbeck – none of which were known in the State Department or the Defense Department. The two Afghan presidents were both of the elite class who’d been schooled in India, Great Britain, and the U.S.. Hence both spoke good English. Further, most military or diplomatic tours of duty lasted at the most for about a year, more frequently for less than that. Decades before 2000, back when the monarchy ruled Afghanistan, U.S. Aid tried to developed raising fruit trees but in vain because of their need for water and a reliable market for transport. I’ve asked myself why were there so many Americans remaining. One answer may be that America now fights with contractors along side the military. Contractors indispensable as mechanics, dog trainers, etc. You name it; it’s got a contract from the U.S. The left behind air base, Bagram, according to one interviewed military guy, resembled an American mall toward the end. Few Americans were “going native” here.
Unfortunately all of these retrospective collections never “take.” Previously we had the examined but unlearned experience of Vietnam. In The March of Folly, Barbara Tuchman relates that at one of Johnson’s & McNamara’s meetings, someone was dispatched to bring in a map of the country. Hmm! A trifle late for a basic lesson in geography.
Thanks MH, who was the reporter at WAPO? Need to know the source.
Agree with the ignorance of Johnson et al but think that S Vietnam might have had a chance to duplicate S Korea with a less restrained mission parameter and long military presence, as in Europe 40-50 years. The fruits of that are obvious to me at least looking at S Korea, Japan and Germany.
No great problems with any of them and Japan and S Korea were not Judeo-Christian, yet still amenable to Democratic rule.
On Islam, you may have read Glen Cook’s lengthy comment in this post which is an excellent overview of the problems in and with Islam.
I agree with all he wrote.
To Don: “The Afghanistan Papers : A SecretHistory of the War” by Craig Whitlock of The Washington Post have been published 16 September 2021 by Simon & Schuster.
It’s on the internet and I’ve ordered my copy. Should be very interesting reading.
Thanks Raymond. This one particularly useful in explaining the problem.
I’ll try it on some friends.
Says one person here: “Apparently there are three languages in the country – Pashto, Dari, and Uzbeck – none of which were known in the State Department or the Defense Department.” Incorrect. Dari is simply the local variant of Persian, of which Farsi is the variant in Iran. The two are as similar as UK and US English. All official signs in Afghanistan appear bilingually in Dari and Pashto. The State Department certainly employs Persian speakers and the Defense Department had courses in Dari for key personnel. Coming back to the article itself, everything that Ibrahim writes is well informed. All the same, since the Taliban came back we are seeing something new: women publicly demanding the right to go back to their jobs in schools and offices. Twenty years of women’s education have made a significant change in the cities vs. the countryside. In Iran women have also been increasingly demanding their rights. Polls in Iran show that a direct consequence of the Islamic regime is that mosques mosque attendance is down and disillusion with religion is becoming widespread. So everything that Ibrahim writes is correct, yet the lesson might be that both Trump and Biden lacked the patience for the long haul. Remember that 66,000 Afghan army and police (vs. 2,500 American service personnel and 3,800 contractors) died fighting the Taliban. But, as the generals just testified before Congress, after Trump’s Doha deal was announced Afghan army morale began to drop. All the more so as the American withdrawal accelerated (Trump had withdrawn almost 90% by the time that he left the White House). Is anyone surprised? American estimates were, we heard, that the Afghan army could fight on alone for up to a year, but that the Taliban would eventually win. So who should be surprised that Afghan soldiers drew the conclusion: we have been abandoned, so better surrender now and maybe live than fight on in vain and all die.
The mission changed to what should have been the long haul stalemate provided by the US air power, intelligence and equipment in conjunction with our allied forces and with the Afghan forces.
40 years and a possibility of changing the ideology might be accomplished but…it is a stubborn ideology, can’t predict change for certain, either way, I believe it’s a strategic necessity to keep the base, intelligence and small force there or it goes to the Chinese most likely.
Russia close by as well. Long term defense strategy should have been articulated by the military properly to the admins and the public.
Time of isolationism is history, peace through strength the only possible solution, maintained from generation to generation.
Dangerous times ahead.
“All the same, since the Taliban came back we are seeing something new: women publicly demanding the right to go back to their jobs in schools and offices. Twenty years of women’s education have made a significant change in the cities vs. the countryside. In Iran women have also been increasingly demanding their rights”.
All this is not so new, at least not in the Muslim world where I was born and grew up, in Egypt under British mandate when royalty still reigned – which produced Huda Sha’arawi (d.1947) founder president of the Egyptian Feminist Union. During my time, middle and upper class Egyptian Muslim women were dressed in the latest Paris fashions and attending the American University at Cairo. Even the help in the home didn’t have to cover themselves up like nuns but wore simple dresses covering their knees and maybe their upper arms in the presence of my father or my husband. In Egypt, they had a rectangular piece of black silky cloth called “mellaya” which they wrapped around their bodies when they went home to visit usually on a Sunday afternoon, which covered neither their face nor their neck but only part of their bodies, hips, etc. Again in Beirut, where I lived for several years. I had long discussions with my home help, little educated girls who could nevertheless think and realise that some rules they were forced to live by didn’t sound right, but a voice always whispered in their ear that the Koran – that is Allah – says that’s what you have to do, in order to shut them up. And when I went back to Egypt for a short trip in the 80s (I wasn’t allowed to stay longer even though both my parents and I were born there) I was shocked at the difference. Even educated Muslim women had to cover their heads and wear long dresses covering their legs, and I am even more shocked to see this in Europe now.
So forgive me if I am not as optimistic as you about seeing “women publicly demanding the right to go back to their jobs and offices etc. etc.” as progress. It is progress of sorts but which can be brutally reversed at any moment, leaving women, who saw the light for a short time, even more discontented. Afghan Muslim men will give only as long as they can get back more in return and forget about any promises they made the minute they are able to. As long as young children, little boys, are programmed to shoot the ‘kafir’ who don’t believe in Allah in the left bank and in the Arab world (I am speaking from experience), and as long as leaders in the West will finally grasp that Islam is “a religion of peace” only when the whole world is converted to Islam, or dead, we will not have peace with Islam. Thank you Raymond Ibrahim for another brilliant article.
Exactly to defeat taliban Islam need to be suppressed and offcourse it would contract American declaration of human rights so America should not have gone in first place