The point has been made by countless people before, but your wording, especially at the end bit there –”revenge”– really hits hard.

I think it was Samantha Power who said a few years ago(in a discussion on humanitarian intervention) something like, “Whether you intervene on humanitarian grounds or for self-interested reasons will determine whether you send your soldiers to guard the hospitals or the oil ministry.” Insert relevant Afghanistan examples.

Did you read the most recent ICG report on Afghanistan? If so, what did you think?

the sad thing about Afghanistan is that there is very little willingness in the part of the Int. community to listen to and understand the Afghans. the new strategy seems to have reflected some of the concerns, but it is far from being really a ‘comprehensive’ strategy.

and thanks for the link to ‘Orientalizing Afghanistan’. that was good. i have a larger paper on science and politics which i wrote for my sociology of science class two years ago. i will translate some sections to put on my blog.