Last week, the final members of our valiant Canadian troops left Afghanistan and returned home. Let me take this opportunity to thank each and every one of them, and to wish them all success and happiness in the days ahead. We can never say thank you enough to these men and women, nor fully appreciate the sacrifices they’ve made. And I’m glad they are now safely back on home soil. So what, then, will become of Afghanistan’s fledgling democracy they fought so hard to bring about?
Last Thursday’s attack in Kabul only serves as a grim indicator of how difficult the road ahead will be. The Taliban doesn’t play by anybody’s rules, not even its own. How do you anticipate the moves of an enemy who has no compunctions about killing or human rights? Like dealing with a rabid animal, dealing with the Taliban often leaves only one recourse – kill them before they kill you. I think it’s safe to say there can never be any level of diplomatic negotiating with the Taliban.
As per the Toronto Star, a group of more than 50 reporters based in Afghanistan effected a fifteen day boycott, refusing to write anything about the Taliban, in protest of this horrific act of violence. Would there be justice? For what it’s worth, the four armed teens who managed to get into a five-star hotel were killed. But only after several hours, and the loss of nine other lives. While depriving the Taliban of publicity won’t discourage their bloodlust, it was the only immediate course of action that could be taken. And it sent a message to the world: Afghanistan was a long way from being able to effectively police and protect itself.
Modern history is pock-marked with examples of fledgling democracies that have failed. Outside forces come in, repress the insurgents, oust the tyrant, implant new systems that meet with their standards, then leave. Dare we call it a formula for failure? Democracy isn’t something that can just be erected and left standing. It isn’t a scaffolding to hold up the intents and ideals of outside interests. America’s failed efforts in to install democracy in Vietnam following the French withdrawal in 1954 and then the Vietnam war have become the defacto guide on how not to conduct foreign policy. Democracy is a process, born of necessity. It must come from within the people it serves, and override existing fear and corruption to take hold effectively.
In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, we can see what happens when the leap to democracy is too soon. These are nations where terrorism and corruption have been endemic. Iraq. Tunisia. Egypt. Libya. Syria. So many people wanted freedom from the existing regime, but their will wasn’t enough to propel them through the pain of change: upheaval, violence, economic downturns. Nor was it enough to go up against the full strength of the existing regime. Or those that followed in its place. Democracy needs time, and it needs to be cultivated carefully.
Which leads us to the crisis in the Ukraine, a fledgling democracy that has succumbed to corruption and weak leadership under Yanukovitch, and is now being preyed upon by the very country that had relinquished it. The fate of Afghanistan does not lie in the hands that once defended it but rather in the hearts and minds of its people; they must wrest control from their oppressors, the Taliban and the warlords, and overcome a culture ruled by terror and corruption.
Issues and Intersections 