As American citizens, we are witnessing an event that has rarely, if ever, been seen previously in history. The United States military has pummeled Afghanistan with bombs for several months and blown up what little amount of infrastructure it had. Now the international community and many American citizens are telling the U.S. government that it must go in and assist in cleaning up the mess. It’s so absurd it’s funny. The Department of Defense spent billions of dollars buying sophisticated weapons. They used these weapons to obliterate the desired targets. Are U.S. taxpayers now supposed to spend billions more repairing all the damage caused by our bombs?
Lest anyone get the wrong idea, before I go any further I am going to say that I think this is a good idea.
“But wait a second,” the critics say. “Why should we spend our tax dollars on rebuilding a nation that is on the other side of the world, especially one that is in its current condition because of the U.S. military? Shouldn’t we devote our money to domestic concerns and quit nation-building?”
Those are fair questions. However, to believe that the United States has no interest in Afghanistan is to have an understanding of history that is simply wrong. Afghanistan will go back to being a hotbed of terrorism if we pull up our stakes and go home.
Look back several years ago when the Soviet Union and the United States were fighting over who would control Afghanistan. In the end, we won but decided that there was no benefit for us in rebuilding the country. So, both superpowers went back home and the people the United States had been funding began fighting among themselves using American-purchased weapons. After years of civil war, the Taliban established supremacy and let terrorists train on Afghani soil. Within a few years, those same terrorists drove a van filled with bombs under the World Trade Center and did significant damage. I don’t think I need to say what terrorists did to the World Trade Center a few years after that.
The point is that we left a war-torn Afghanistan alone once already. Judging by the recent past, I don’t think it is wise to do it again.
The next reason to spend U.S. tax dollars in helping rebuild Afghanistan has nothing to do with the interests of American citizens. It has to do with our interests as citizens of the world. Common decency demands that we do all we can to help our fellow humans when they are in need. Hunger, disease, homelessness-you name the problem and it’s a major crisis in Afghanistan. Care packages and the Red Cross aren’t going to do the job either. Basic societal infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, and water treatment plants must be built so Afghani citizens have the resources to remake their country into a decent place to live. This sort of assistance requires the resources that only a few wealthy countries such as the United States have. Rebuilding from the ravages of war is not cheap and will take all forms of aid such as grants, low-interest loans, food and medicine, to make a serious effort in alleviating suffering in Afghanistan.
It won’t be cheap and it won’t be easy. I daresay that conducting a war is much less difficult than picking up the pieces after one. This time we must finish the job. Look on the bright side: after years of spending U.S. taxpayers’ money on weapons, we can finally spend our money on things that are designed to improve Afghani lives instead of taking them.