During the first few weeks of the military action in Afghanistan, the international press was filled with comments from columnists and readers about the bombings. Some people simply believed that there was something inherently wrong with the wealthiest country in the world bombing one of the poorest. Others asked readers not to forget the images of Sept. 11, and argued that the bombing was justified on those grounds.
These arguments have likely changed due to the fact that the military campaign seems to have yielded some of the desired results, such as the end of the Taliban's supremacy over the majority of Afghanistan.
Throughout this period of the war I was most moved by the argument presented by Polly Toynbee in The Guardian on Oct. 10, 2001. Her article, "Limp liberals fail to protect their most profound values," criticized the "fuzzy idea on the soft left of an Islamic cultural otherness that supersedes basic human rights..."
Her article goes on to describe how "hard headed liberals have no problem opposing the Taliban" because they "hold basic human rights to be non-negotiable and worth fighting for." She elaborates on this, taking it to a global level: "Promoting liberal values everywhere from Burma to Saudi Arabia, Iraq to Chechnya is not neocolonialism, but respect for a universal right to freedom from oppression." I completely agree.
Though we entered into military conflict with the Taliban because of their harboring of terrorists, the Taliban's removal from power is only part of the US's job. The "war on terrorism" will go on its convoluted way, but if we now take an active role in helping build a new Afghan state, hopefully Afghanis will not ever have to live under such an oppressive regime. It is as much in the US's interest as it is their duty, to now work with the many ethnic groups to form a coalition government.
Undoubtedly, this will only be a temporary solution, as twenty years of warfare, both internal and external, will not be solved overnight.
The process of establishing a new government will likely be a long and arduous one for all involved. I hope that the US takes an active role in this process and, in so doing, helps establish a government that best represents the various people of Afghanistan, their cultures and customs, while ensuring that all Afghanis live free from oppression. This is a possibility; a government has just been displaced and the world's eyes will be watching how Afghanistan rebuilds itself politically and socially.
However, it is more than a shame that a regime that tortured its citizens and forced all women out of the public sphere, was only brought down after they could be tied to the events of Sept. 11.
As our world continues to shrink due to the ease with which people, capital, and ideas move around the globe, I hope there will be increasingly less tolerance for regimes, such as the Taliban, that rule with blatant disregard for personal freedoms.
I am aware of the paradox of wishing for less tolerance of intolerant regimes, but there is another contradiction that is equally unsettling. Those from the West who argue that regimes that do not equally protect all their citizens (based upon sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, or race) do so because of cultural differences that must be respected. These critics argue that cultural differences often manifest themselves in forms of government, and it is not the duty of the West to tell these governments how to govern their people.
I appreciate this, in that I understand that cultural differences must be understood; however, there seems to be a serious hypocrisy in their argument. These critics who argue for cultural relativism do so from the comfort of nations that guarantee and protect their freedoms to make such comments, and live in manners that would not be tolerated under the governments they seek to defend. I choose to hope for that liberal ideal - a world in which every individual is afforded a life free from oppression - I hope the new Afghan government does as well.
Chris Mitchell is a senior majoring in history.
