Yesterday Charlie Rose had on Brian Glyn Williams, an associate professor of Islamic history at UMass. Williams was talking about the necessity of putting more troops into Afghanistan, because the Taliban is now a globalized movement. He said that we know what withdrawal from Afghanistan would look like: The Israelis withdrew from Gaza, and look what happened, Hamas rained rockets on them. Rose merely nodded.
And so once again the Israeli experience of expelling Palestinians and occupying their land (which has continued with the blockade of Gaza) is used to rationalize American occupation of the Muslim world. Let’s straighten this out: Israel and the Palestinians are engaged in a long conflict over territory/occupation. Israel has developed an expansionist/militarist strategy to deal with the conflict that is only making things worse. This is no role model. Even Gen. Stanley McChrystal has said that he doesn’t want to be an occupier. How unfortunate that someone like Williams is given a platform. His comments had the opposite effect on me to what he intended: the sooner we get out of Afghanistan (a war I supported), the better.
