In Afghanistan, we should be looking at ways to get the locals up to snuff to take over the remainder of the job.
An interesting point you bring up. I was reading Thomas Sowell's Barbarians Inside the Gates this a.m. and came upon an essay called
Misunderstanding the Marshall Plan. His key point is the truth behind John Stuart Mills statement that "
what is crucial is the 'human capital' needed to build or rebuild the physical things"
I think it's clear that Afghanistan is clearly lacking in human capital. I'm not sure what we can hope to attain as far as creating anything more than a third world backwater can go. Our best hope is to help them progress to a point where they actually have something to lose if the Taliban and al-Queda return.
They won't be an industrialized democracy anytime in the foreseeable future, but there's plenty of backwater hell holes that aren't hosting al-Queda.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
They don't need to be South Korea. But they do need a functioning political system. "Functioning" does not equal "perfect" - we don't need to make the Hindu Kush into Arizona and we should not expect to. Just sufficient power in the hands of basically just men able to confidently wield it to keep worse men at bay. Then it is their job, and we go home.