The Woman Who Wants Us Out

Afghan politician and women's rights activist Malalai Joya on Western forces in Afghanistan:

Torture, drug trafficking, the continued rule of warlords and fundamentalists–these are the only things that this war has brought Afghans. Today, our people are being victimized by two enemies: the occupation forces bombing us from the sky, and the warlords and their Taliban brothers-in-creed.

If the troops withdraw, it will be easier for Afghans to fight one enemy and to determine our own future. It is the duty of the Afghan people to work for freedom and democracy; these values can never be donated to us by the very foreign powers who–after nearly three decades of funding various fundamentalists are arming warlords and other criminals–are responsible for many of the problems Afghanistan faces today.

While I don't agree with everything Joya has to say, I think her words in this case are worth consideration; especially as we debate women's rights as a byproduct of war.

I understand the temptation to morph the Afghan war into a cause for liberalism and humanitarianism, and the likelihood will only increase now that a liberal president has assumed the role of caretaker over the conflict. And we've seen this before from previous progressive administrations, as Wilson's Latin America policy comes to mind. The temptation to be global evangelists of just about anything can sometimes be too attractive when you possess the means to act on that temptation.

But why we went to war and what we can do with war are two different things, and we should be mindful not to let the latter have too much influence over broader policy ambitions. Making Afghanistan the central front in women's liberation makes no more sense than making Afghanistan the central front in the War on Terrorism--both are in fact global struggles requiring global solutions.

(h/t Andrew Sullivan)