Posté le Vendredi 27 mars 2009 par Mateamargo
Il est rafraîchissant d’apprendre qu’il y a des peuples qui ne font pas de complexes. Des bonnes nouvelles d’Afghanistan par, devinez qui ? Le NYT ! Ah, mais c’est vrai, j’oubliais qu’il s’agît de la « bonne guerre » d’Obama, pas comme l’autre…
By DAVID BROOKS
Khyber Pass, Afghanistan
I came to Afghanistan skeptical of American efforts to transform this country. Afghanistan is one of the poorest, least-educated and most-corrupt nations on earth. It is an infinitely complex and fractured society. It has powerful enemies in Pakistan, Iran and the drug networks working hard to foment chaos. The ground is littered with the ruins of great powers that tried to change this place. Moreover, we simply do not know how to modernize nations. Western aid workers seem to spend most of their time drawing up flow charts for each other. They’re so worried about their inspectors general that they can’t really immerse themselves in the messy world of local reality. They insist on making most of the spending decisions themselves so the “recipients” of their largess end up passive, dependent and resentful. Every element of my skepticism was reinforced during a six-day tour of the country. Yet the people who work here make an overwhelming case that Afghanistan can become a functional, terror-fighting society and that it is worth sending our sons and daughters into danger to achieve this. In the first place, the Afghan people want what we want. They are, as Lord Byron put it, one of the few people in the region without an inferiority complex. They think they did us a big favor by destroying the Soviet Union and we repaid them with abandonment. They think we owe them all this. That makes relations between Afghans and foreigners relatively straightforward. Most military leaders here prefer working with the Afghans to the Iraqis. The Afghans are warm and welcoming. They detest the insurgents and root for American success. “The Afghans have treated you as friends, allies and liberators from the very beginning,” says Afghanistan’s defense minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak. Second, we’re already well through the screwing-up phase of our operation. At first, the Western nations underestimated the insurgency. They tried to centralize power in Kabul. They tried to fight a hodgepodge, multilateral war. Those and other errors have been exposed, and coalition forces are learning. When you interview impressive leaders here, like Brig. Gen. John Nicholson of Regional Command South, Col. John Agoglia of the Counterinsurgency Training Center and Chris Alexander of the U.N., you see how relentless they are at criticizing their own operations. Thanks to people like that, the coalition will stumble toward success, having tried the alternatives. Third, we’ve got our priorities right. Armies love killing bad guys. Aid agencies love building schools. But the most important part of any aid effort is governance and law and order. It’s reforming the police, improving the courts, training local civil servants and building prisons. In Afghanistan, every Western agency is finally focused on this issue, from a Canadian reconstruction camp in Kandahar to the top U.S. general, David McKiernan. Fourth, the quality of Afghan leadership is improving. This is a relative thing. President Hamid Karzai is detested by much of the U.S. military. Some provincial governors are drug dealers on the side. But as the U.N.’s Kai Eide told the Security Council, “The Afghan government is today better and more competent than ever before.” Reformers now lead the most important ministries and competent governors run key provinces. Fifth, the U.S. is finally taking this war seriously. Up until now, insurgents have had free rein in vast areas of southern Afghanistan. The infusion of 17,000 more U.S. troops will change that. The Obama administration also promises a civilian surge to balance the military push. Sixth, Pakistan is finally on the agenda. For the past few years, the U.S. has let Pakistan get away with murder. The insurgents train, organize and get support from there. “It’s very hard to deal with a cross-border insurgency on only one side of the border,” says Mr. Alexander of the U.N. The Obama strategic review recognizes this. Finally, it is simply wrong to say that Afghanistan is a hopeless 14th-century basket case. This country had decent institutions before the Communist takeover. It hasn’t fallen into chaos, the way Iraq did, because it has a culture of communal discussion and a respect for village elders. The Afghans have embraced the democratic process with enthusiasm. I finish this trip still skeptical but also infected by the optimism of the truly impressive people who are working here. And one other thing: After the trauma in Iraq, it would have been easy for the U.S. to withdraw into exhaustion and realism. Instead, President Obama is doubling down on the very principles that some dismiss as neocon fantasy: the idea that this nation has the capacity to use military and civilian power to promote democracy, nurture civil society and rebuild failed states. Foreign policy experts can promote one doctrine or another, but this energetic and ambitious response — amid economic crisis and war weariness — says something profound about America’s DNA. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
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7 réponses à “Un peuple sans complexes d’infériorité”
9 avr 09 à 23:25
President Obama is doubling down on the very principles that some dismiss as neocon fantasy: the idea that this nation has the capacity to use military and civilian power to promote democracy, nurture civil society and rebuild failed states.
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C’est le bla bla insipide que l’on vend en utilisant les précédents relativement acceptes comme des réussites de l’Allemagne et du Japon après 45 …… Il faut 3 siècles pour cristalliser une Nation alors de la Démocratie en Fast Food ……..Pour l’Irak il aurait plutôt parler de « baby sitting » .Au final , peu importe la forme choisie par le régime ( de royauté a fédération ) , l’essentiel étant la volonté de se partager le pouvoir et éviter la guerre civile apres la chape de plomb Saddamienne ….
9 avr 09 à 13:03
L’opium et le sexe
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Je suppose que Tahar se croit oblige de coller les »intégrismes chrétien et juif » dans le lot alors que vraiment , je ne suis pas specialiste mais il ne semble que ces deux religions sont largement exonérées des hystéries malsaines qui polluent l’extrémisme islamiste des Talibans ou d’autres …
Politiquement correct ( a.k.a « je suis un leche -cul » ) ca fait vraiment des ravages …..
9 avr 09 à 11:26
31 mar 09 à 06:03
L’Afghanistan sera le tombeau de Barack Obama!
31 mar 09 à 06:01
31 mar 09 à 05:41
In the first place, the Afghan people want what we want.The Afghans are warm and welcoming. They detest the insurgents and root for American success.
LOL
Cette langue de bois est en contradiction totale avec l´article de samedi du Figaro.
29 mar 09 à 15:13
Western aid workers seem to spend most of their time drawing up flow charts for each other. They’re so worried about their inspectors general that they can’t really immerse themselves in the messy world of local reality. They insist on making most of the spending decisions themselves so the “recipients” of their largess end up passive, dependent and resentful.
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Sans parler du fait que de trouille ils vont de moins en moins sur le terain se contentant de faiore de la poudre aux yeux a leurs superieurs ..
La methode est connue de toutes les ONG onusiennes ! Tout le monde est content , les rapports s’entassent , les budgets se depensent , il n’y a jamais d’incidents et ca va ( ou peut ) durer des annees ….Ek Bonne Heure !! ( Des exemples ? le deploiement a Chypre ! 40 ans de routine paisible ………base sur une force (……) militaire , ils devaient trouver dees solutions ……
