Uncle Sam--The Don Quixote of the 21st Century

Cervantes, in his brilliant novel, treats his gentle, if addled, hero Don Quixote, as a dreamer with the noble aim of rectifying injustice wherever it was found. His world
was small, limited to a horizon he could reach on horseback. And in his fantasies he performed great deeds of valor, whether jousting with an evil knight who masqueraded as a windmill, or rescuing a virgin princess--in reality a slutty barmaid, from the gypsys, the bar flys. Readers come away inspired to reach for the
stars, as did the Don, for such effort enobles the soul.

The history of our nation for the last half century has been created by a series of Presidents who have been reincarnations of the Don, imbued with missionary zeal
to play the roles of Saviours of Democracy and Capitalism everywhere--in a world
of total accessibility given jet planes and the internet.
Like the Don they were captives of fantasy, enraptured by the might and power of
our country, our wealth, and the "obvious" superiority of our system. So, unaware that the foes we chose were in masquerade, because of our lack of knowledge of their
cultures, political structures and beliefs, we galloped off to remake their world
in our image. In the process we almost lost our world.
We are trying to build a nation in Afghanistan. The characteristics of nationhood are some form of Central authority, with many semi autonomous jurisdictions providing control and services to the people. In our nation we have the central
National government and countless jurisdictions: states, counties, cities, towns, school boards, public safety, health services, public utilities, elections, taxing,
sanitation, roads and streets, and more. All of those form a matrix for providing
for a safe and fuctioning society. Now consider Afghanistan. None of that structure exists now and hasn't in the past. On what will we construct a nation with any chance of survival without our military presence?
Yes chaos will probably ensue if we withdraw, and Afghanistan will revert to tribal
enclaves run by warlords, whose control will extend only as far as their armed forces. The Taliban will return and exercise overall power. It is unlikely that the Taliban will permit Al Queda to return as that would invite retaliation from the West. And we will need to gear up our intelligence services to anticipate and prevent terrorist attacks. But most important, we need to educate our diplomats, congress, and the American people about other folks in other lands,
with other cultures and aspirations. If we don't learn from our errors we will be
nursemaids to failed states in the middle East forever.