How to Change a Culture: Question of Imperialists

What is the U.S. military's goal in Afghanistan?  This is a difficult question to answer.  It ought to puzzle the most intellectual of minds because no single response could make sense entirely.  The American Revolution was a conflict to break from the bondage of an empire.  The Civil War was a battle for national identity and unity.  World War II had a concrete objective: to defeat fascist aggressors in Europe, and end Japanese imperialism.  These are wars with clear objective and victory.


Afghanistan on the other hand?  We invaded to destroy Al Qaeda, but we remain to rebuild a nation.  What could this possibly mean?  No one knows, apparently.  The fact that we support its shameful democracy is proof of our misdirected efforts.  The U.S.-backed Karzai Administration casts an inescapable shadow of corruption over the entire government.  Scandal and fraud have plagued his recent reelection, delegitimizing the very democracy we have set in place. 


Corruption aside, this sham of a government does not seem to be a whole lot better than Taliban rule.  A provision in legislation passed this April states: "...a wife is obliged to fulfill the sexual desires of her husband..."  What this could mean I do not know, though some have said this law essentially condones rape.  Mastermind of the law, Ayatollah Mohammed Asef Mohseni (yes, Ayatollah), defends the statute by refuting Western analysis, and claiming that married women do indeed have the right to refuse sex, though "If a woman says no, the man has the right not to feed her."  Oh okay, cool.  All cleared up.  Thanks Asef!


But the perverted and broken government of Afghanistan are actually not my primary arguments against the war.  No, my critique is one against the imperialist mind.  We Americans are, after all, imperialists, plain and simple.  Two countries we now occupy (facilitated by foreign mercenaries... ask me), with hundreds upon hundreds of military installations throughout the world... the aggressors in over 200 conflicts since 1945.  We alone determine global economic policy.
     
Living in the Empire has many perks, I must say.  I've had a privileged life (though not without my parents' comprehensive health insurance plan) and we are all blessed with relatively few foreign attacks (with two days of exception, of course).  This country is somehow able to wage endless wars without the public even remembering!  A miracle?  Must be! "A million Iraqis died?  Oh, hey did you see that new iPhone app?  Pretty sweet, huh.  Tiger Woods had an affair?  What sport does he play again?  Hey, pass the cocaine.  And hand me that silly as shit magazine.  Yeah, the one about nothing."
     
When I bring up Afghanistan in public, I most often get a "remember 9/11" line or some defensive variation of our "moral duty" to save those people over there.  Who are they again?  Also popular is the "we broke it, we bought it" line.  These latter defenses seem silly to me, though they are common to the 'moral' imperialists.  To address the 9/11-imperialists: Al Qaeda does not even need Afghanistan because they have such a wonderful home in Pakistan to conduct operations.  Al Qaeda left long ago, and if they ever returned from over the Kush Mountains, they would not have nearly comparable resources as they had further East.
     
The 'moral' imperialists talk about some kind of higher responsibility to save these people.  But really we should not be meddling in such drastic ways in foreign lands at all.  It is just so imperial to believe in your state's sole right to wage devastating wars and heartless occupations in the name of Freedom.  That is not Freedom, that is tyranny.  President Washington would be ashamed.  Jefferson too.  Barack Obama says we are fighting for something just, but is it 'just' to impede on another's sovereignty?  To be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands?  What American cares about those people?  Please, tell me if you do!
     
We are trying to change cultures.  Cultures that are so unlike ours we cannot imagine.  We do not understand--or even bother to understand--the Muslim world.  Perhaps we never will.  The West spent many centuries fighting its own religious wars, yet we seem to believe it is possible for a foreign occupation to end ideological feuds in a matter of years.  It cannot be done, and thus we have no business in such affairs.