Without getting into the specifics of Aghanistan, there is a general point that has bubbled close to the surface a couple of times. It’s a fact known to anyone who has worked in community or organizational development, but one that seems to have been overlooked in planning for both Afghanistan and Iraq, and for the “war” on “terror” in general.

Organizations of any scale are complex systems, and nations are more complex than any other form of organization. They are SYSTEMS, which means their elements are linked, mutually supportive, and interdependent. Because of the millions of cultural, political, economic, and environmental (in the broad sense) threads that comprise nations, they have a homeostatic tendency to return to their version of “normal”, even after catastrophic intervention removes a layer, or two, or ten.

Political leaders like to keep things simple and sell simple ideas. They are abetted in this by media, who like heroes and villains, and nice, easy to understand conflicts. So we have been told that a handful of bad guys in Afghanistan oppressed the worthy masses, who would (if they only knew about it) have been clamouring for American style democracy, Western values and freedoms, and so on.

If you’ve been watching Afghanistan slowly slide back to its pre-invasion state of oppression (with the added impetus of skyrocketing opium revenues for the warlords), you’re seeing homeostasis in action.

In Iraq, after the collapse of all the other excuses, the remaining justification remains the elimination of Saddam. Interestingly, we are now beginning hear odd reports about assassination, imprisonments and torture being practiced by Iraqi troops…while Americans are still ostensibly in charge of national security.

Slicing off the head and grafting on a new one from another continent and culture doesn’t work. Period. Full stop.