{"id":2884,"date":"2009-10-05T06:20:54","date_gmt":"2009-10-05T14:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/wordpress\/?p=2884"},"modified":"2009-10-05T06:20:54","modified_gmt":"2009-10-05T14:20:54","slug":"the-possible-limits-of-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/the-possible-limits-of-power\/","title":{"rendered":"The possible limits of power"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ten experts polled by the New York Times <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/10\/04\/opinion\/04afghanistan.html?_r=1&amp;scp=1&amp;sq=10%20steps%20to%20victory%20in%20afghanistan&amp;st=cse\">present their advice <\/a>for winning in Afghanistan.\u00a0 Suggestions include \u201ca genuine run-off election,\u201d \u201cempowering local pashtuns\u201d by \u201cpolitical and economic means,\u201d creating a \u201cfunctioning local justice system with courts, lawyers and jails,\u201d and \u201cestablishing strict accountability mechanisms for high officials.\u201d\u00a0 Such nation-building measures are noble, worthy\u00a0aims.\u00a0 They may well be necessary to achieving our ends in Afghanistan and achieving our ends in Afghanistan may well be necessary to controlling Al Qaeda terrorism.\u00a0 But necessary does not always mean doable, especially by a military determined not to colonize a country.\u00a0 The preconditions for a responsive, relatively honest government and a stable civil society take centuries to evolve.\u00a0 Perhaps if we acted like actual colonizers and unapologetically took over the machinery of government we could remake these tribal lands in a direction more like representative democracy.\u00a0 But we cannot figure out how to change underclass culture in the U.S. and lower the out-of-wedlock birthrate among ghetto residents, or reduce corruption in New Jersey and Chicago.\u00a0 Changing the dynamics of power in Afghanistan is\u00a0obviously far more difficult, however imperative it might be to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ten experts polled by the New York Times present their advice for winning in Afghanistan.\u00a0 Suggestions include \u201ca genuine run-off election,\u201d \u201cempowering local pashtuns\u201d by \u201cpolitical and economic means,\u201d creating a \u201cfunctioning local justice system with courts, lawyers and jails,\u201d &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/the-possible-limits-of-power\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2884"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2884"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2886,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2884\/revisions\/2886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}