04 December 2009
NATO is the Right Obama Target
His upcoming Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech gives President Barack Obama an opportunity to direct his persuasive skills towards the entire community of liberal democracies around the world. We no longer live on a globe that is segmented into nation states that can insulate themselves from the disorder that rules other geographies, and sometimes parts of their own lands, behind physical borders. The information technology revolution has provided private ideological groups the tools to organize and implement violent acts against peaceful people anywhere.
As Andrew Bacevich has pointed out (cf. his The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (2008)), this is a challenge that the U.S. alone cannot and should not attempt to meet. It is too costly and its threat is to the living standards of the entire modern world. The decision of NATO today to reinforce its contingent in Afghanistan may indicate a willingness to share that burden. Moreover, as the leader of the most powerful of those nation states, President Obama would well serve his own domestic constituency by peristenly enlisting other civil governments into an effective police program that protects the security of all their citizens from the international terrorism that honors no boundaries and respects no civilized behavior code.
In the meantime, increasing the U.S. and NATO military strength in Afghanistan will only approach making that country into a virtual garrison—a situation that will never be welcomed by the Afghan people, and that will constantly invite rebellious attacks on the occupying armies. If the Afghans wish to live in an outlaw state, let them do it; but keep vigilance over the threat that outlaws there pose to the rest of the world and maintain an ability to intervene forcefully when needed to prevent those outlaws from harming the rest of the world.
His upcoming Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech gives President Barack Obama an opportunity to direct his persuasive skills towards the entire community of liberal democracies around the world. We no longer live on a globe that is segmented into nation states that can insulate themselves from the disorder that rules other geographies, and sometimes parts of their own lands, behind physical borders. The information technology revolution has provided private ideological groups the tools to organize and implement violent acts against peaceful people anywhere.
As Andrew Bacevich has pointed out (cf. his The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (2008)), this is a challenge that the U.S. alone cannot and should not attempt to meet. It is too costly and its threat is to the living standards of the entire modern world. The decision of NATO today to reinforce its contingent in Afghanistan may indicate a willingness to share that burden. Moreover, as the leader of the most powerful of those nation states, President Obama would well serve his own domestic constituency by peristenly enlisting other civil governments into an effective police program that protects the security of all their citizens from the international terrorism that honors no boundaries and respects no civilized behavior code.
In the meantime, increasing the U.S. and NATO military strength in Afghanistan will only approach making that country into a virtual garrison—a situation that will never be welcomed by the Afghan people, and that will constantly invite rebellious attacks on the occupying armies. If the Afghans wish to live in an outlaw state, let them do it; but keep vigilance over the threat that outlaws there pose to the rest of the world and maintain an ability to intervene forcefully when needed to prevent those outlaws from harming the rest of the world.
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