More and more, the questions over the point of the continuing NATO involvement in a bleak, mediaeval but beautiful country are justified. The stated aim has not been and cannot be achieved; the western military presence may have hardened Taliban hatred; Pakistan, at least, is much more involved in terrorism than it was as a result; many lives – civilian as well as military – have been lost; it is costing billions of much needed money; and the known troop withdrawal dates make the idea of an effective presence for the future almost farcical.
Whenever anything seems pointless, I try to look at it to see what is another or deeper explanation for something being so. As someone who doubted the wisdom or need for both the occupation of Iraq and then Afghanistan from their beginnings, and who believes in non-interference as far as possible in the affairs of others (my views on the damage done by well-intended but interfering missionaries, for example, over the centuries are another story), I have been able to find few third dimensional justifications. Terrorism is worse, the world is more unstable, and archaeological damage to some of the most significant religious and historical centres has been enormous. Iraq is beginning to develop economically but it is still a dangerous place where anything could happen.
Often, however, the more hopeless or pointless a situation, the more there are grounds for optimism, and the greater the negativity, the greater the positive that will come from it. Afghanistan, and Iraq, have given us so many lessons for our future about the powerlessness of military might, about expectation and political arrogance, about how money does not buy success, about diplomacy over aggression, about pragmatism and truth, about wisdom and boundaries, where responsibility begins and ends, and about a better, kinder way of dealing with our human neighbours and their lands.
These lessons are for us too in our own lives: it helps to remember that, just as in Afghanistan today whatever seems pointless or hopeless is, in fact, not so.]]>