Rory Stewart on Afghanistan, 1/3

Harvard professor and Afghanistan expert Rory Stewart on the weekly PBS news show Bill Moyers Journal, 25 Sep 2009. Part 1 of 3.

"And we end up in a bit of a muddle, because we tend to be pursuing five objectives at once, assuming that they all amount to the same thing. The real problem is that some of these things just may not be possible."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Afghanistan
• Rory Stewart
• Bill Moyers
• PBS

[GreatGrumbledook]

@GHCAP: Normally you can play off the Germans and Italians easily but in this case Spengler and Machiavelli are birds of the selfsame feather; and stop me your cosmopolite folly: The foul minions of the vile Camel Merchant Cult will prevail in Bactria; and you Dutch may smoke their highly illegal weed lawfully but your folly will fail there.

[GHCAP]

@GreatGrumbledook: us Dutch don't believe in war. We believe in bringing democratic development and feminism to Afghanistan in F16s. On the quoting business, you could have made it easier for yourself with Machiavelli: "There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others." Although I must admit Spengler's quote "ideas that have become blood demand blood" is a lot more poetic.

[GreatGrumbledook]

... or for the highest rank in it, if it should become socialistic."

@GHCAP: So the wars will never and.

[GreatGrumbledook]

... like the citizens of the Classical world during its final centuries, like the Indians and Chinese of today, it would merely exchange its role of war-wager for that of the object about and with which others would wage war. Even if a Faustian universal harmony could be attained, masterful types on the order of late Roman, late Chinese, or late Egyptian Caesars would battle each other for this Empire—for the possession of it, if its final form were capitalistic; ...

[GreatGrumbledook]

... constitute themselves as countries when it becomes a matter of their continued existence or their success. Everything that proceeds from the innermost soul to become flesh or fleshly creation demands a sacrifice of flesh in return. Ideas that have become blood demand blood. War is the eternal pattern of higher human existence, and countries exist for wars sake; they are signs of readiness for war. And even if a tired and blood-drained humanity desired to do away with war ...

[GreatGrumbledook]

"Politics is the highest and most powerful dimension of all historical existence. World history is the history of states; the history of states is the history of wars. Ideas, when they press for decisions, assume the form of political units: countries, peoples, or parties. They must be fought over not with words but with weapons. Economic warfare becomes military warfare between countries or within countries. Religious associations such as Jewry and Mohammedanism, Huguenots and Mormons, ...

[GreatGrumbledook]

@GHCAP: If you are referring to War (and all true history consists of wars) I have very bad news for you; as I will invoke Heraclitus on war: "War is both father and king of all, some he has shown forth as gods and others as men, some he has made slaves and others free." - and also Oswald Spengler:

[GHCAP]

@GreatGrumbledook Seems to me it's all just history repeating. No lessons learned! When will it end!

[GreatGrumbledook]

Besides the Netherlands did fall under the very same German onslaught, so you have railed against your own country as well as against France.

[GreatGrumbledook]

@GHCAP: Do you feeble little Dutch person charge mighty France with cowardice? The Germans alone might do so due to their infamous lighting war of 1940, but they did not:

"France has been defeated, and after offering heroic resistance, caved in as a consequence of a single bloody battle. However, Germany does not have the intention to use the armistice conditions and armistice negotiations as a form of humiliation against such a valiant opponent."