Nation Building: A Necessity of Victory
This is one aspect of the Somali debacle that must be avoided in Afghanistan and future campaigns. By not taking sides in the conflict and by not building tangible alliances, US and UN forces were constrained from disarming the "technicals" who persisted in their internal feuds. Humanitarian efforts to deliver food and other aid to hungry people will not end armed conflict. The only way to end armed conflict is to identify a particular enemy, form alliances with existing opposition to that enemy, and destroy the weapons and resources of that enemy. As benevolent as the "we take no side in their civil war" assertions may sound, practical adherence to those assertions provide only scant incentives for the affected peoples to adopt long-term, peaceful solutions to their grievances after the US/coalition forces are withdrawn.
Another lesson from the Somali fiasco is staunch consistency in respect of the particular enemy identified to pursue. For months US forces sought the capture of the warlord Mohammed Farar Aidid. The "technicals" supporting Mr. Aidid controlled the most territory, held the most weapons, and publicly celebrated the deaths they caused US and UN "peace keepers". As the time neared for the Western contingents to withdraw, a series of sham peace talks were held. In recognition of the territory and weapons his "technicals" controlled, the US suddenly changed its view of Mr. Aidid and claimed that no government could be established in Somalia without his participation. A decade later Somalia still has no single de facto government. One of every four Somalis still suffers from severe malnutrition or starvation. Mr. Aidid remains very influential and still celebrates the gruesome acts of torture his "technicals" use to terrorize their fellow Somalis.
If no attempt to establish a stable government is made in post-Taleban Afghanistan, the results will be similar. No matter what extent of influence the Taleban Mullahs have, that influence is rooted in terror, fear, torture, and every aspect of tyranny the US finds purely abominable. Good results never come from leaving bad regimes in power after the battle. Ten years after the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein still torments his people. Stability is far from existence in Kosovo and Macedonia. The same will transpire in Afghanistan if no effort towards nation building is made. Without nation building, the Taleban will re-emerge in slightly different but equally menacing forms. It solves nothing to strike selected targets without effecting substantive results at
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