{"id":329080,"date":"2021-08-23T05:44:51","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T02:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/no-more-nation-building-ever-again\/"},"modified":"2021-08-23T05:44:51","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T02:44:51","slug":"no-more-nation-building-ever-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/no-more-nation-building-ever-again\/","title":{"rendered":"#No more nation-building ever again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#No more nation-building ever again<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n        <\/aside>\n<p>President Biden\u2019s shoddy withdrawal from Afghanistan has irrevocably sullied America\u2019s reputation. Even opponents of continued occupation have been horrified at the indefensible manner in which this extraction was done.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s also worth stepping back from the im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>te Biden-orchestrated debacle to focus on the broader lessons we can glean from this unceremonious end to America\u2019s longest-ever war: To wit, America must put aside the hopeless project of nation-building once and for all.<\/p>\n<p>The US-led war in Afghanistan \u2014 the earliest and, initially, highest-profile theater of the sprawling George W. Bush-era \u201cWar on Terror\u201d \u2014 commenced in October 2001, less than a month after the 9\/11 terrorist attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The invasion was supported overwhelmingly in the aftermath of the Taliban\u2019s harboring of al Qa\u00adeda and refusal to extradite 9\/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, signed into law on Sept. 18, 2001, passed 98-0 in the Senate and 420-1 in the House. The AUMF granted Bush (and subsequent presidents) the authority to deploy \u201cnecessary and <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ropriate force\u201d against those who \u201cplanned, authorized, committed or aided\u201d the 9\/11 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n<p>The Taliban\u00a0government in Kabul fell in December 2001. Following its fall, Taliban-led insurgencies and allied forces-led counterinsurgencies began to intermittently coincide with the US-led effort to construct durable Afghan governing institutions, centered around President Hamid Karzai.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/biden-afghanistan-5.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"President Joe Biden has been criticized following the removal of US troops in Afghanistan.\" class=\"wp-image-19211502\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/biden-afghanistan-5.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/biden-afghanistan-5.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/biden-afghanistan-5.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>President Joe Biden has been criticized following the removal of US troops in Afghanistan.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Manuel Balce Ceneta\/AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n    <\/aside>\n<p>The philosophical impetus for this ultimately failed attempt to export Western-style Madisonian democracy to a faraway tribal Islamic land was encapsulated in Bush\u2019s second inaugural address, a\u00a0paean to neoconservatism: \u201cEventually, the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We have confidence, because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What utter, hubristic and, we can now say, deeply costly <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trip<\/a>e.<\/p>\n<p>At the very latest, the justification for the US presence in Afghanistan should have ended with the successful May 2011 raid of bin Laden\u2019s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan \u2014 a daring and spirited military mission launched from Afghanistan. It is unclear (at best) whether a pronounced American institution-building and counterinsurgency military presence in Afghanistan was necessary for the successful execution of the bin Laden raid but, even assuming it was, that raid now happened over a decade ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What on earth has been the purported American strategic goal in Afghanistan since then? Why would we waste blood and treasure trying to sculpt a Montesquieu-esque separation-of-powers regime out of a deeply impoverished, geopolitically unimportant hellhole halfway around the world?<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/taliban-kabul-3.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Taliban fighters stand guard at a checkpoint in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul.\" class=\"wp-image-19211506\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/taliban-kabul-3.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/taliban-kabul-3.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/taliban-kabul-3.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Taliban fighters stand guard at a checkpoint in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Rahmat Gul\/AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The fall of Kabul, much like the failed Iraq War and the fall of Saigon before it, ought to serve as a scathing wake-up call for the myopic denizens of our foreign-policy and military establishments, as well as the American ruling class more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>ly.<\/p>\n<p>Egg on the face of our generals, so confident that the US could adequately train those in a tribal land to build and fight for a mostly fabricated nation-state, only to see Kabul fall within days of American withdrawal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Egg on the face of the politicians who repeatedly supported doubling down on this boondoggle, and who must now prepare themselves to tell Gold Star families that, yes, their loved ones did indeed die in vain.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Egg on the face of the armchair intellectuals and think-tank pundits who promoted the notion that \u201cwe fight the terrorists there so that they don\u2019t harm us here\u201d \u2014 apparently oblivious to the fact that 9\/11 was first and foremost an immigration-vetting failure, given the plane hijackers who trained here and then committed their dastardly deeds on (often expired) visas we all-too-happily doled out.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/kabul-rescue.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"In this Aug. 21, 2021, photo provided by the U.S. Marine Corps, a Marine with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command (SPMAGTF-CR-CC) opens a meal ready-to-eat for the children to eat during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul\" class=\"wp-image-19211515\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/kabul-rescue.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/kabul-rescue.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/kabul-rescue.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>A Marine with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command (SPMAGTF-CR-CC) opens a meal ready-to-eat for the children to eat during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Sgt. Samuel Ruiz\/U.S. Marine Corps via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Foreign-policy isolationism is, and always will be, naive for a power such as the United States. But neoconservatism is equally naive. We need a prudent, hard-headed, national-interest-oriented foreign policy that secures the American way of life without falling prey to delusions of grandeur. It\u2019s time for a late-stage empire to sober up a bit and refocus on building a functioning nation-state here on the home front.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Twitter: @Josh_Hammer<\/em>\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/08\/22\/afghanistans-big-lesson-no-more-nation-building-ever-again\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#No more nation-building ever again&#8221; President Biden\u2019s shoddy withdrawal from Afghanistan has irrevocably sullied America\u2019s reputation. Even opponents of continued occupation have been horrified at the indefensible manner in which this extraction was done.\u00a0 But it\u2019s also worth stepping back from the immediate Biden-orchestrated debacle to focus on the broader lessons we can glean from&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":329081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/afghanistan-nation-building.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[114680,72315,991,77091,25460,67874],"class_list":["post-329080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-8-22-21","tag-afghanistan","tag-joe-biden","tag-kabul","tag-middle-east","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}