The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

Loose Canons

(Page 2 of 2)

If it took only money to keep Kabul Bank open and to prevent Afghanistan from returning to Taliban control, the money would be well spent. But the money won't provide the safety and security that Afghans need to prosper.

We cannot build a functioning democracy in Afghanistan without creating a viable economy as its foundation. When we attacked Afghanistan there was none, and there is not one now. Even without the war in Afghanistan, it would take decades (if not centuries) and trillions of dollars to do so.

Prosperous economies can be revived after the worst devastation as post-World War II Europe and Japan demonstrate. But where -- as in Afghanistan -- no economic infrastructure exists, where the population remains disunited and so insecure that it cannot function economically, there is no economy to revive.

President Obama's nation-building strategy -- inherited from President Bush -- will end with the beginning of our withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2011. Those who believe that we will leave behind a stable democracy strong enough to prevent that country from reverting quickly to a safe haven for terrorists should eagerly support bailing out Kabul Bank.

But for those of us not suffering that particular delusion, bailing out an Afghan bank makes as much sense as any other aspect of nation-building. Which is none at all.