The West's Troops-Out Polemics Rely On 'A Deeply Racist Libel' - Praveen Swami.

Like every other crisis on our planet today, the roots of the war in Afghanistan lie in modernity: the battles for empire of the 19th century; the Cold War; secularisation against faith.

There are entirely legitimate debates to be conducted on when the West should leave Afghanistan, and how the war there should be fought. The truth, though, is this: the world chose not to commit the resources, and blood, needed to build a modern nation-state from the ruins of the Cold War. Blaming Afghans for a fate they did not choose isn't legitimate debate — it is deeply racist libel.

Praveen's essay is one of the sharpest analyses I have read on the subject of the dominant Euro-American incoherence about the thing everybody likes to call the War in Afghanistan. And I say that not just because Praveen's perspective accords exactly with my own findings.

Do read the whole thing.