Just because we have not won yet is no reason why we will not win soon. -- Famous American General in Iraq In secret budgets, the US paid for the futile efforts of the French to defeat Vietnamese insurgents. “Ah, but they were the French. We are Americans,” more than one general and defense secretary intoned. From 1960 to ignominious defeat 15 years later, the US failed to defeat the Vietnamese, despite committing 500,000 troops and spending billions of dollars. “But,” the generals said, “we won every battle. The politicians lost the war.” When the war is lost in Iraq, if it is not already lost, American generals will say much the same thing. Of course politicians are military ignoramuses. Yet, then why do not the generals object to the politician's wars of choice? That is another dreary story rife with ambition and hubris. Here I intend to propose a military solution to the war in Afghanistan by using Israel's strategy in Palestine as a model. American politicians never criticize Israel, so they will not interfere with military solutions no matter how harsh or extreme they may seem to armchair warriors.
Consider the facts: Afghanistan has a population of about 30 million, an area of 647,000 square kilometers (larger than any European nation except Russia), 50 percent of which is over 2,000 meters high. Its insurgents are resourceful and tough. No wonder the Soviets found it impossible to subdue them. Afghanistan has been the “graveyard of empires” for a reason. A war cannot be won against the insurgents so long as Afghanistan remains Afghanistan. Therefore, it must be turned into Palestine. Then Israeli methods of controlling insurgents can be applied successfully.
Of course it may seem impossible to confine 30 million people into the area of the West Bank and Gaza. Let us be proportional. There are about 5 million Palestinians confined to 6000 square kilometers. For 30 million Afghanis we must then allow for about 36,000 square kilometers, which is a little less than the size of Ireland, where the British had so much success. Of course an American planner from MIT might respond: “The Palestinians are housed, when sheltered at all, inefficiently. We could build high rises. If we assume the density of, say, Manhattan (1.6 million/57 square kilometers), we could house 30 million Afghanis in about 1,053 square kilometers, about one fifth of the West Bank and Gaza. We could then wall in the area as a kind of Afghani Kasbah. There would be logistical problems, food, water, electricity etc., but nothing insurmountable. There would be expenses, but nothing like the $12 billion a month spent in Iraq.”
There would also be malcontents, including those who would rather live in tents than in high rise apartments. And then there are religious and other fanatics. Here is where Americans can learn from Israelis. American soldiers would conduct random raids, destroying buildings and other infrastructure, killing a few thousand men, women and children, and otherwise creating havoc. There is no lesson as powerful as the death of children. Even fanatics get this message. “Our new policy, an American general might conclude, takes a page out of the Israeli playbook and combines it with American ingenuity and compassion. Just because the Israelis have had their problems with Palestinians does not mean we will encounter the same difficulties. We are Americans after all.”
*Christopher Vasillopulos, Ph.D., is a professor of international relations at Eastern Connecticut State University.
