Winning Hearts and Minds in Kandahar

The Bush Administration has been getting a bad rap lately. Sure, they can't defend America from hurricanes, economic meltdown or lethal Chinese cat food, but there's one thing there still darn good at: inflicting massive civilian casualties.

This seems to be happening more and more lately. A friend of mine who works for the UN in Kabul told me, only half-jokingly, that he'd been invited to an Afghan wedding and was more afraid of US predator drones than running into a Taliban militiaman.

Afghan weddings are dreary enough as it is. The men are segregated from the women, there's no dancing and you're about as likely to get a drink as you are to shag a bridesmaid in the confessional. The last thing these poor people need is more conflict and destruction courtesy of Uncle Sam.

Apart from the moral issues involved, killing the innocent a lousy way to defeat an insurgency, just ask the Soviets. Oh wait, you can't. Their country fell apart 3 years after withdrawing from Afghanistan. The British Empire didn't do so well either.

Unfortunately I doubt anyone back home noticed. On November 4th we were too busy congratulating ourselves on how far we've come since the 60's. That may very well be true for dark-skinned Americans, but for the dark-skinned foreigner unlucky enough to live in a country we've decided to Democratize, it's a short road from My Lai to Abu Ghraib and Kandahar. This is a war we will never win. Let's hope the Obama administration brings it to a speedy end.