Mark Steyn is brilliant, witty and incisive, that is factual. But I think he is ignoring realities in the course of making a funny with this. Question: Which of these is David Petraeus, four-star general and commander, US forces Afghanistan? And which is camp Brit icon Kenneth Williams playing the Khazi of Khalabar in the 1960s Afghan laugh riot Carry On Up The Khyber? Answer: Photograph A? Or photograph B? Now it is easy enough to mock Petraeus and it is certainly a silly hat. But just because some poncy Brit has joked about Afghanistan doesn't mean Petraeus is a mockery. Quite the opposite, and I realize that Steyn was just going for a quick joke. But his underlying point is that we are simply parading around the Hindu Kush in vain. He may be right, but if we are to accomplish anything at all it must include winning allies among the local people. Afghanistan is a tribal and honor culture so alliances can come in nicely homogeneous chunks. But you must approach this from their cultural world view. So Petraeus is the leader of the American tribe and as such deals with other leaders. He could walk in wearing full battle rattle and plant a flag in the ground demanding the swear obeisance and then kill a couple dozen men putting their head on pikes. But you see, we kinda have a few rules against that. And yes I agree it might be more effective than our current kissing the asses hearts and minds approach. But it is not an option. So we do it the only way we can, and the only way it can work. The same thing happened in Iraq and with adaptations for the soup sandwich that is Afghanistan. It is the right thing to do there.
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/Q64NLd8py_Y/going-native.html
Posted
Apr 11 2011, 02:08 AM
by
BLACKFIVE