'Just World News' with Helena Cobban

Afghanistan's opposition as a peasant-based insurgency, by Bob Spencer

Long-time JWN commenter Bob Spencer sent me the text of a thought-provoking small essay he has written, that takes as its starting point that the opposition movement in Afghanistan can best be considered as similar to most or all other peasant-based insurgencies.

I applaud this intentional attempt to get beyond (or quite out of) the discourse of "fighting terror" and to contextualize what's happening in Afghanistan.

Here's how Bob's essay starts:

In a peasant-based insurgency, the side that is least politically effective is the side that will escalate the violence. Also, the side that is least politically effective will most often lose the conflict.

My background is somewhat unorthodox. I guess you can say that I have spent a lifetime writing and managing foundation and government human development grants. At the same time, I have spent most of my adult life studying about political development and insurgencies.

If anyone asks for any details---and probably, nobody will; here’s the scoop.

I worked in Viet Nam for four years during the war. I worked in refugee camps and village development. I was in the most intense part of the country and found myself backing into Vietnamese politics. Several of the most highly skilled Vietnamese political operators had the patience to teach me every day about Vietnamese politics. They included a prominent monk, the highest level spies, a highly admired and effective community organizer, and good civil servants. Life became pretty exciting and my life often depended upon my understanding of Vietnamese politics, so I tended to be as good a student as I could.

I don’t know if it is good or bad, but much of my motivation came from anger and sadness at what I saw.

Please note that, as nearly all editors do, I put the headline onto the piece. Also note that, though I am happy to publish it because I think it pushes the discussion of what-all is happening in Afghanistan forward in helpful ways, still I don't agree with everything Bob writes. Or rather, I think there are a couple of important questions that he fails to ask about the US-NATO project in Afghanistan.

But I don't want to prejudice the discussion by bringing up those questions now. I invite readers to go read Bob's piece and comment on them here.

Thanks for honoring JWN with your essay, Bob.