of afghan "teenagers" and the whiteman's never ending burden

A short news story with a long long history.  History that is repeating itself, endlessly . A history  of  white imperialism.  Imperialism spoken of, and for, by  generations  of  Imperious , Paternalistic, voices for whom  the rest of the world's people were children to be  cared for.  Peoples to be civilised .  And now, "Teenagers" to be tamed. Or droned to death, if they continue to challenge neocolonialism . 

Rudyard Kipling , the Poet Laureate of  White imperialism, put it best  when he wrote "The Whiteman's Burden"  a long poem  written on occasion of  the  American invasion of  the Philipines.  

I am posting the first two stanzas of "The White Man's Burden" , highlighting the distant echoes  to  what an American general  just just said  about  America's longest  war . the one in  Afghanistan.  The one that  the British are again a part of.  The one that is a repetition of the  series of Afghan wars they fought from 1839 to  1919. The wars they did not win then. And will not win now.  The Kiiplingesque "Arithmetic"  in  Afghanistan is still against them .

A scrimmage in a Border Station --
  A canter down some dark defile --
Two thousand pounds of education
  Drops to a ten-rupee jezail --
The Crammer's boast, the Squadron's pride,
Shot like a rabbit in a ride!

No proposition Euclid wrote,
  No formulae the text-books know,
Will turn the bullet from your coat,
  Or ward the tulwar's downward blow
Strike hard who cares -- shoot straight who can --
The odds are on the cheaper man.

                                                    Arithmetic on the Frontier

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

                                     "The Whiteman's Burden. "

Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, former commander of US troops in Afghanistan and counterinsurgency architect, gave an interview to The Associated Press published Monday in which he compared Afghans to teenagers, and said the US has an "emotional responsibility" to continue occupying the country.

"We have an emotional responsibility" to leave US occupying forces in Afghanistan, said Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal. (Screengrab)McChrystal said that Afghans don't want a full troop withdrawal.

"Like a teenager, you really don’t want your parents hanging around you, but ... you like to know if things go bad, they’re going to help," he said.

"We have an emotional responsibility" to leave US occupying forces in Afghanistan, he told AP.

Speaking to USA Today, McChrystal describes an Afghanistan 10 years from now when American "advisors and trainers" will be working with Afghan forces. In addition to these armed forces, he says he "would certainly like to see American businesses in Afghanistan.


http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/01/08-3