RSS

Thu, Dec 24th 2009, 07:59

Patrick Edwin Moran, Wake Forest University, Platinum Contributor (182)

Regardless of how it begins, once two or more entities contend grafting them together is bound to be torturous. The U.S. Civil War has still not completely healed after nearly 150 years. Any administration that seeks to gain political power for itself by fanning the flames on one side or the other of an old divide does harm to the union that it is sworn to protect, but it still can happen. In a situation where two or more nations are to be united as one, the central government cannot succeed in unifying the nation if it acts as the agent of one or another of the original contending groups. The alternative to melding and unifying the contending groups is to destroy all but one of them. Nations of the world of today react strongly against genocidal policies. So where does that leave an Afghan leader who might aspire to become that nation's unifier and bringer of peace?

A worthy leader will elucidate the just standards that reasonable individuals in Afghanistan can abide, and will hold all parties to those just standards while avoiding any thrust of malice toward those currently opposed to the central government. To be such a leader is an impossible task for any single ordinary person. Moreover, such a leader could be perceived as a threat by outside nations currently engaged in Afghanistan.

Sometimes a black swan is a ray of hope rather than a thunderhead.