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

To: one_less who wrote (166410)	7/18/2005 11:29:13 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

>> Such conduct is not supportable by a society of conscience I agree. I believe Americans, as a people, are among the best in the world...the US policy on the other hand is a different story. >> Our principles of rights, liberties, and rule of law are the ultimate measure of our behavior. By that measure US foreign policy gets a very pathetic score. >> As I stated regarding the balance of economic interests and noble cause... I have no doubts that there were many who genuinely felt for the plight of Afghans and wanted to help them. Even amongst most "realists", I think there was some noble feelings for the Afghans. But the impurity of intentions, if we may call it that, was such that aid to Afghans was not distributed equally and Taliban-like factions were favored over more moderate ones. For one thing, people like Ahmed Shah Masood did not want to see Afghanistan in complete ruin; they just wanted to see the soviets out (makes lack of US support for him rather ironic given that it was his faction that saved the day on the ground when we attacked the Taliban). On the other hand, Wahhabis fought with a zeal that destroyed everything on their path. So they seemed like "better" fighters, even though Masood demostrated far superior tactical and strategic skills. For another, supporting the Islamists was cheaper since Saudi was willing to foot a big chunk of the bill. By the time the soviets left, we did not even have the decency to call to the table the people who died fighting our common foe to negotiate with the Russians. Nor did we show any appreciations by helping them rebuild their country. We got what we wanted and then we left without a thank you...And so the noble sentiments, genuine as they had been for some people, became nothing but a marketing ploy.