. . . But Not As We Know It, Jim

 A Strange Kind of Nation Building

It was going to take over twenty-five years, we were told.  But Afghanistan would be a different kind of war.  Sure, there would be the usual conflict with insurgents, campaigns against the Taliban and those seeking to overthrow the corrupt government in Kabul.  But, more importantly, it would be a war with a human face, a face moulded around an idealist, even utopian belief in human rights. 

This war would be unlike dirty wars, fought over filthy lucre and oil.  This was to be a pure war.  A war worth fighting.  This war would lead to better things.  Out of it all, over the long term, over a quarter of a century's ministrations by the idealistic humanitarianism of the West, a new nation would emerge.

Consequently, President Obama grandiloquently intoned, it was the war we had to have.
  It was the important war.  It was a moral war.  It was not over oil (there was none to be had); it was not a war to line the pockets of monied interests and rapacious Western capitalists.  It was, instead, an idealistic war.  It was a humanitarian conflict.  It would be a war that would provide, firstly protection for Afghanis from insurgent attacks.  Then it would provide lots of aid and assistance to civilize Afghanis and begin to provide the "good things" of life.  Then, being freed, a new democratic, rights honouring, peace loving nation would emerge to the ultimate betterment of us all.  Or so the naive patter ran. 

So, how's it going then?  We are reliably informed that some betting agencies are now offering odds on how long it will the current corrupt Afghani government will last once NATO has withdrawn its strike capability and the insurgency gains strength and territory.  How many warlords will quickly change sides?  How long before Kabul falls?  A year? Two years? 

If you were to want a leading indicator you could do no better than look to Afghani agriculture.  This year will see record agricultural production--which is a good thing, right.  Poverty is waning because crops are being planted and harvested.  This will doubtless reduce the attraction of the insurgency and will persuade your average Afghani peasant that things are looking up.  As indeed they are, according to this report from The Guardian.

Twelve years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan is heading for a near-record opium crop as instability pushes up the amount of land planted with illegal but lucrative poppies, according to a bleak UN report. . . .  "Poppy cultivation is not only expected to expand in areas where it already existed in 2012 … but also in new areas or areas where poppy cultivation was stopped," the Afghanistan Opium Winter Risk Assessment found.  The growth in opium cultivation reflects both spreading instability and concerns about the future. Farmers are more likely to plant the deadly crop in areas of high violence or where they have not received any agricultural aid, the report said. 

"Opium cultivation is up for the third successive year, and production is heading towards record levels," said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, Afghanistan head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. "People are hedging against an insecure future both politically and economically." . . . If this year's poppy fields are harvested without disruption, the country would likely regain its status as producer of 90% of the world's opium. Afghanistan's share of the deadly market slipped to around 75% after bad weather and a blight slashed production over the past two years.  But the decline in opium production also drove up prices, to a record $300 a kilogramme. Prices have now slipped by over $100 but are still far above historic levels, helping tempt more farmers to turn land over to poppy.

The world is an extremely messy place.  Human cultures are exceedingly thick and complex.  The US and Nato and Western powers are on their way to failing miserably--as we always knew they would.   Much, much better for the naive, foolish Western nations to lay aside their vaunting pride, dismember their idols of secular human rights and unprincipled representative governments, reject their false religion of secular humanism and commence clothing themselves with humility.  There is only one Redeemer and He does not share His glory with another.

But, here's the thing.  If the West continues to reject and dismiss the King of kings, it will never have the requisite humility to accept limitations upon its power, efficacy, and influence with true humility.  Western peoples demand far too much of their governments, verging on an expectation of omni-competence.  They all too often both expect and applaud their governments' driven recklessness to prove the superiority and rectitude of  Western Baalism before the watching world.  Afghani nation building is just one application of this prevailing idolatry.  

And the fruit of this idolatrous arrogance?  Opium.  Lots of it.  And more beside.  Doubtless there will be lots more beside.