Falling into the Afghan trap.

• Author: Marsh, Gerald E.
• Position: The World Today

THE "WAR ON TERROR" must end. Even the phrase itself is ill conceived and used for domestic political purposes that obscure the true nature of the problem. Conceptually, the term constrains the response to the real threat solely to military means. In particular, the war against terror in Afghanistan cannot be won and its continuation may damage our real national interests in the region. It is the spread of radical Islamic ideology that is the source of our difficulties--and that cannot be countered militarily.

This is not to say that, after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. should not have retaliated against the Taliban, which, at that juncture, ruled Afghanistan (and soon may do so again) and which gave, at a minimum, a home to those who planned the attacks. The American response in Afghanistan following 9/11 was planned and executed brilliantly, and all the warnings from those who, with trepidation, remembered the USSR's disastrous efforts in Afghanistan, were wrong--at least for the time being. Since then, however, it has been a different story, as the U.S.'s postwar strategy has been deeply flawed. Simply put: an effective strategy cannot be formulated in the absence of coherent and consistent policy objectives. Today, the U.S. is bogged down in tactical responses to Taliban initiatives. Little by little, the Soviet experience is becoming more and more relevant.

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To formulate a coherent policy, the problem and its origins first must be understood, something that seemed to be lacking in the ideologically driven Bush Administration. After the withdrawal of Soviet troops was completed in 1989, it took three more years for the Mujabidin to overthrow the Soviet-backed Afghan government. The Mujahidin then turned to fighting among themselves and destroyed any semblance of civil society. Everyone appears to have forgotten the relief with which the world greeted the Taliban when they seemed to emerge from nowhere in 1994-95. Mohammad Najibullah, Afghanistan's former president, was castrated and from a lamppost in 1996 and the nation was declared an Islamic state that henceforth would be ruled under the Sharia. The Taliban brought peace and the rule of law. Only later did the world come to understand what that meant. Interestingly enough, the Taliban never have been very popular in the Muslim world. Only Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government.

It was the Taliban, of course, that gave refuge to a man whose name haunts us still. Explains Charles Allen in God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad: "Mullah Omar's Taliban Government had given sanctuary to a Yemen-born Saudi national who had earlier helped channel vast sums of Saudi Arabian petro-dollars into...