Goodbye to Nation Building

The Americans need Afghanistan for strong military installations.

As much as President Obama tries to characterize the Afghanistan campaign as a success, nothing can disguise the fact that the reasons given for Wednesday’s announcement of withdrawal plans from the country are due to one thing: the U.S. government can no longer afford the costs of the war.

Afghanistan is eons away from being a nation-building success story, although it was once touted as a new Marshall Plan. Only a minuscule portion ($3 billion to $4 billion) of the financial aid the U.S. pours into the country goes for civilian projects, while the war there devours some $120 billion yearly.

And the civilian projects will become even fewer because whenever the military pulls out, foreign civilians soon follow. The withdrawal plans show that the United States and the other allies with a troop presence in Afghanistan — some have already announced their withdrawal plans as well — have lost their ambition for Afghan development.

The reasons they aren’t leaving sooner are twofold: on the one hand, there’s the political balance between war-weariness and the lack of money, while on the other hand, there’s the fear of appearing to be militarily incompetent. If there has to be negotiations with the Taliban, then they should preferably take place from a position of military strength.

Above all, however, the United States has no intention of leaving completely. The battlefield now most strategically important to America is no longer Afghanistan, and it’s most certainly not Libya, but Pakistan.

In order to have influence in Pakistan, the United States will require strong military installations in Afghanistan far beyond the year 2014, when all U.S. combat troops are scheduled to be out of the country.

Afghanistan will once again change from being a nation under construction into a military parade field.