Stardate 20020129.2238

(On Screen): Whenever discussion gets around to "nation building" in Afghanistan or anywhere else, it's important to keep in mind what we can, and cannot, do.

We can fix the roads. We can rebuild the power plants and put in electrical power lines. We can install phone systems. We can repair the tunnels and bridges. We can build railroads. We can build buildings. We can fill factories and hospitals with necessary equipment. We can create operational airports and fill them with working aircraft. We can begin the long process of demining.

We can fix the infrastructure of the nation.

We cannot give them peace. We cannot prevent them from fighting each other if they are really determined to do so. Ultimately, Afghanistan can only rebuild a government and a civil society, an effective bureaucracy and an honest judiciary, if the people of that nation themselves want it.

Karzai certainly does, and he is doing everything in his power in that direction. (He's a good man. I hope he doesn't get himself assassinated.)

But news reports suggest that Rabbani hasn't given up his ambitions, nor has Dostum, nor have several of the other warlords. That is a problem that the Afghan people have to solve for themselves.

Occupation by foreign troops is only a temporary solution. It can damp down the symptoms, but it cannot make the disease go away. That may still be helpful in order to give the Afghans themselves time to work on the fundamental problem, but the effectiveness of peacekeepers declines with time, so they have to recognize that ultimately the solution must come from within.