SELF HATE MAKES FOR A BASS ACKWARDS FOREIGN POLICY | 2001-10-27
Presently there is a lot of discussion of what kind of government we should impose on Afghanistan. Of course, no one uses the word "impose." But anyone who cannot make the connection is simply incapable of thought.
So we delayed air cover to Northern Alliance forces fighting the Taliban because the Northern Alliance is a coalition of Afghani minorities.
But the Northern Alliance is a coalition of AFGHANI minorities. We are foreigners. Why is it up to us to base our military strategy on imposing our ideal government on a foreign country? What gives us the right to do that?
I have no objection to our considering whether the Northern Alliance would best serve our national purposes. If it is not stable enough to be worth backing, that is another matter. But whether they are the PROPER government is, in my opinion, no business of ours.
Unless you are a colonial power, the only right we have to interfere in the affairs of other sovereign countries is where their actions directly affect you. Whether we think it is good or bad or democratic is not ours to dictate.
We are over there because they attacked us. That is our ONLY reason for being there. Unless you stick to your own interests, you become a colonialist.