Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (74485)	2/16/2003 3:16:30 AM
From: D. Long	Respond to of 281500

And the relative costs of operating thousands of US troops and off shore battle groups for a year is considerably larger than what is necessary to inoculate children and drill wells. Nor are we the ones shouldering the full burden of reconstruction, and we've given the most. What, precisely, do you suggest is good enough to be called "nation building" if: stabilizing the population and health conditions, providing security for the nascent government and training for the nascent national army and police force, engaging in infrastructure rebuilding projects, assisting in drawing up a legal framework for the nation, and assisting in building an educational system, and assisting in stabilizing the currency ...is not? Let's review some facts: There was no working government, no working legal apparatus, no working education system, infrastructure which had totally collapsed after 20 years of war, no stable currency, no economy to speak of, no security whatsoever ...prior to invasion. This wasn't a nation, it was a pothole. Friedman commented from Kabul, to give you an idea of the condition and state of mind of the country, that merchants were selling postcards of a pile of rubble, identified on the reverse as the "former Afghan national museum!" It has been a year and four months, Jacob. You expect miracles. There is an interim government, formed by AFGHANS, in Kabul which is slowly but steadily coming together. For the first time in 20 years, the curfew was lifted in Kabul a couple months ago. The currency has been stabilized and reformed, and trade is picking up. A national army and police force is being trained, and weapons are being collected (by the Afghan national government) from the warlords, with great success by all accounts. Kids are going to schools, which are being slowly rebuilt and, thanks to the US, they have books. Refugees are returning to the country and rebuilding. It's been a YEAR, Jacob. ONE year. Give it time, for crying out loud. They're better off than I expected for them by this time. And we CAN'T DO IT FOR THEM. They have to rebuild their own country. We can give a hand, but that's all. Derek