The West needs to explain

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai, one of the better speakers on the hummus circuit these days, started this evening’s rhetorical stemwinder at the US/Islamic World Forum in Doha pretty much the way all the other non-American speakers did:  with the failure of the American efforts to produce an Israel/Palestine peace agreement on the two-state model.  He has no objection to Israel he said, but the Palestinians are likewise entitled to a secure and peaceful state.

But he veered quickly to colonial Afghanistan, British rule and the Americans as heirs to it, stopping along the way to note the Soviet invasion.  Hold on tight now, because the roller coaster ride is about to start.

Like the Soviets, who tried to impose Communism on a deeply religious people, he said the Americans were responsible for trying to impose radicalism on moderate Afghan traditions, which we intentionally uprooted (don’t blame the messenger–I’m only trying to report what I heard him say).  The Americans and Europeans then abandoned Afghanistan to its fate.  They returned after September 11, for which Karzai is grateful.  The country made great leaps forward in democracy, free media, and education.  He hardly need take any credit for these, as that had been given to him in Martin Indyk’s ample introduction.

But the war on terror is not a happy story, Karzai said.  Have we succeeded, he asked?  Who is a terrorist?  Have their sanctuaries been addressed?  There is more radicalism now rather than less.  Is this a consequence of the war on terror?  Was this what we were trying to achieve?  The West needs to explain itself to the Muslim world.  Returning to the opening theme, he doubted the West is impartial on Israel and Palestine.  They should both be secure states.  Is the war on terror really against terrorism?  It is an increasing view in the Muslim world that the West supports radicalism.  This the West needs to explain.  The Muslim world is in turmoil from Pakistan to Nigeria.  Is this only due to bad governance, or is it due to external factors?  The West abandoned Libya after the fall of Qaddafi.  The result is an incident like the one this week in which a militia that was not disbanded killed demonstrators.  Is Libya, like Afghanistan, to be left in the hands of radicals?

Relations between the Muslim world and the West are changing.  We need to understand each other better.  The US has to explain itself.  Of course there are good Westerners like Mother Teresa, who went to serve the poor in India.

This speech did not surprise those who know Karzai well and have heard him in the past.  But it was verging on nutty, and offensive, to those of us who haven’t heard him in person in a few years.  Certainly maintaining American support for Afghanistan with him as its leader would not be an easy task.  While occasionally hinting at gratitude for Western help, he seemed mostly concerned with shedding responsibility for extremism by painting it thick on the Americans.  Not many of us are going to be able to match Mother Teresa in goodness.

He did not mention the presidential election next year.  He was at no pains to reassure his audience that it would be free, fair or even take place.  Sometimes what politicians don’t say is more important than what they do say.