POST: Conservatism And Afghanistan, By Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 08 Sep 2009

Disagree with Sullivan here: where America has gone and stayed, peace has come, not just to the country but to the region.

Now we're lured/forced by events to make similar efforts in parts of the world heretofore largely ignored or only temporarily/cynically addressed in the past.

Order will be applied to the region because the neighbors and the world have little choice but to address its shortcomings. That will take decades, but making it an American affair is foolish. We will simply have to accept the kindness of "strangers" more, especially those for whom this is the "front yard." The outcomes we will settle for will be sub-par by our standards, but the connectivity--also largely created and maintained by others--will come, and with the connectivity will follow the desired social change and associated political change.

But nothing can be imposed from the outside when the culture/economic/political gap is this large. We can't short-circuit history here, only speed it up. And we have to realize that while we may play bodyguard early on, globalization's advance will come through others and ultimately be defended by the same.

Again, if you can only stand for an American-style outcome, we never should have come. Both Left and Right tend to be childish in this regard--in the sense of Lenin's critique of those who wish for magical change. We have no need to match bin Laden's infantile thinking in this regard.

There are more than enough incentives to subdue this place, making it safe for women to act more like we believe they should be free to act and making it very dangerous--even deadly--for men who would have it otherwise. But we are being totally unrealistic on the incentives here--as well as the people most likely to respond to them in a manner we could eventually come to recognize as practical success.

The problem with Americans is that they hate to admit they can't do everything by themselves. And so we continue with this useless all-or-nothing debate.

We're not leaving. But we're also not going to be in charge of outcomes.

Remember those two realities and this will all go down a lot easier.