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Fighting Alongside a Stupid Columnist
Posted by Kevin

Roger Cohen thinks that Europe is too pacifist, too unwilling to fight and die in Afghanistan:

The former group, battling the Taliban in Helmand Province and elsewhere, includes the United States, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands. The latter is dominated by Germany, Spain and Italy. The split gives a rough guide to parts of the world that still see military force as inextricable from international security and others that are now functionally pacifist.

“In Afghanistan, NATO solidarity collapses at the point of danger,” said Julian Lindley-French, a military expert at the Netherlands Defense Academy. “There’s no point planning robust operations worldwide if the burden is not shared. A lot of the German troops are little more than heavily armed traffic cops.”

Canada, with about 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan, has seen 71 killed. That is about three times the German losses and seven times the Italian. Britain has more than 80 dead, and the United States almost 450. These are eloquent numbers.

There are several problems here, only one of which he addresses at all: Pakistan

One German retort I’ve heard is that it’s no good having the United States demand that its allies fight and die in southern Afghanistan when Washington refuses debate over the role of its pampered friend, Pakistan, in the violence.

That’s a fair point. Still, it’s time to bring on the Bundesmacht and past time for continental Europe to overcome its pacifist mirage and accept that these are dangerous times demanding serious defense budgets and sacrifice.

Cohen says its a fair point, but then, without even attempting to address it, says that Europe should just do as he wants anyway. But why should the EU send more troops to fight and die in a war that the actions of its primary ally make un-winnable? If southern Afghanistan cannot be pacified without dealing with the border region of Pakistan — not an unreasonable conclusion - -and the United States refuses to take any steps to force Pakistan to allow that region to be pacified - -which is a fair description of US policy at this point — then why should EU soldiers die in a fight they cannot win? How is it pacifisim to avoid wasting the lives of your soldiers?

But Cohen’s biggest oversight is the failure to address the affect that Bush Iraq disaster has had on the international playing field. Cohen writes that the mission in Iraq has changed and that the Taliban is resurgent. He ails to mention that those sad events have come about because the United States went off on a hair-brained scheme in Iraq instead of finishing the job in Afghanistan. What purpose does it serve for the Eu to become even more tightly ensnared in Afghanistan not knowing whether or not the US is serious about its commitment in Afghanistan. The EU already knows that Bush has no intention of ever leaving Iraq, much less shifting the focus of American military to Afghanistan.

More importantly, Bush’s Iraq war has been a monumental disaster. It has destabilized the region, lent credence to the propaganda of the terrorist, provided them with a marvelous recruiting tool, and made it easier for them to learn how to attack Western forces. Perhpas the Eu is worried about following the US lead, even in Afghanistan, becasue it is convinced that the US doesn;t have the first clue as to how to fight an insurgency or deal with the Muslim world. We have already seen reports of British commanders begging their US counterparts to not use so many air-strikes, as they kill indiscriminately and drive people into the arms of the Taliban as a result. Perhaps the EU is making the rational decision that they need to try tactics other than that of the US but that effort would be torpedoed by closer military co-operation with bumbling US commanders in the south of Afghanistan.

Perhaps I am wrong; perhaps the concerns I lay out here are overblown or of such little cost compared ot the potential gain that they should be put aside. But Cohen doesn’t even consider those issues. No, to him, Germans are pacifists and weak because they refuse to rush headlong into supporting, without question or control, what the Bush Administration does in the south of Afghanistan. IN Cohen’s world, there could never be a rational, well though out, compelling reason not to blow sh*t up. No, refusal to fall in line is the result of a moral failing or the result of wishful thinking, of believing in a “mirage”.

Cohen, a columnist for the New York Times, has just written an opinion piece whose “argument” is little more than name calling and chest thumping, barely fir for the playground much less a serious columnist. And yet he is a serious columnist, writing from one of the loftiest perches in the free world. That he and his editors thinks this an op-ed suitable for publication is both stunning and terrifying. Welcome to the our nation’s very serious foreign policy discussion; fell free to check your brain at the door. It appears that most of our commentariat has.

October 25th, 2007 Culture, Iraq, Terrorism, Media | 2 comments