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The Ethnic Dilemma in Afghanistan
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Obama reflects
Few motives for violence carry the level of vitriol and intensity than those rooted in ethnic hatred. The earth is tomb to countless individuals who met their demise due solely to an affiliation with a certain ethnicity. In Rwanda, nearly a million people were slaughtered in less than three months in an orgy of ethnic hatred. Neighbors knocked on doors to drag their countrymen into the streets to be hacked to death with machetes. It was a systematic attempt by one ethnic group to eliminate another. While not all ethnic rivalries culminate so ghastly, the underlying motives perpetuating hostility are often similar. Afghanistan is a country grappling with these issues now. Until a national identity emerges that can trump local ethnic affiliation, progress in Afghanistan will prove elusive. The Obama Administration must recognize this reality while formulating US policy on Afghanistan. The addition of thousands more US soldiers will do little to dissolve mutual suspicion between Afghanistan’s multi-ethnic nation.
A defining characteristic during Afghanistan’s lengthy civil war was animosity between ethnic groups. Uzbeks, Tajiks, Hazaras, and Pashtuns all engaged in massacres as control over territory ebbed and flowed amongst them. The US invasion actually employed these hostilities to oust the Pashtun Taliban by arming and assisting their ethnic rivals. To keep the Taliban at bay the US bolstered ethnic militias so as to commit as few US troops as possible. Ethnic hatred was thus institutionalized.
Moving forward in Afghanistan requires more than strong counter-insurgency operations. The goal must not just be to beat back the Taliban insurgency; it must be to forge an Afghan identity salient among all ethnic groups. Such a venture requires concerted and sustained efforts by civilian and military institutions alike. As Obama weighs the option of committing more US soldiers he must also consider how best to foster ethnic reconciliation. To ignore this paramount issue would be to betray those whom are put in harms way in our name.
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