Power Line’s Steven Hayward writes a valedictory for our twenty years pacification effort in Afghanistan, the graveyard of empires. As you might imagine, it isn’t upbeat.
The only strategy that might have conceivably worked would have been the ancient one: kill the Taliban and their allied tribespeople in very large numbers. That’s called “genocide” these days, and as such would never be considered.
The brutally practical Romans knew how to incorporate unwilling tribespeople into the empire. They’d kill all the men and sell the women and children into slavery. This destroyed the cultural network which supported rebellion, produced marketable byproducts, and left land free for occupation.
Conclusion: As we are unwilling to follow the often-successful Roman model, we should avoid making the otherwise futile attempt.
