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Riots have overtaken Afghanistan with locals and foreigners being caught twixt a clash of cultures.  The spark that ignited the latest wave of violence was the burning of copies of the Quran and other religious papers at a major U.S. base.  Before American damage control kicked in an official spokesman implied that the Quran burning was purposeful, since prisoners held at the base were reciting passages as some terrorist code.

To Muslims the Quran is held in higher esteem than the Bible by even the most fundamentalist of Christians.  Destroying a Quran is an insult to Islam.  The military probably understood this but failed to appreciate that it was considered a sin and insulted all Muslims everywhere, not just the prisoners who owned the books.  The riots would probably have passed with little notice if American soldiers had not also been killed. Both Christians and Muslims honor those martyred defending their faith but religion is about life not martyrdom.

The American military has shouted that it will continue to ignore reality and follow its conquering army policies as sound strategy.  As regrettable as the deaths are, they are understandable, a sense of frustration and hopelessness grips Afghans.  For millenniums they have resisted foreign occupying armies and despite self-disillusionment the Americans are an occupying army.  The Afghans see assaults on their culture and religion, destroyed villages and wandering refugees, corruption, insults and abuse.  The foreign army has attempted to impose an American society, that the Afghans can’t afford, on the country.  They hear American political candidates using harsh Afghan rhetoric as a campaign tool.  They see American agencies stirring up Muslim unrest in Africa, Near and Mid-east.  Christian fundamentalists call to smite the heathens. Afghans see the military supporting attacks on Muslims around the world and the NYPD targeting Muslims across America. The problem with all this is that Muslims can read papers, search the Internet and watch TV as American voices fan flames of hatred.  Even before the latest unrest the intelligence community was attempting to warn the American government of the failures of military policies in Afghanistan.  The military countered they were on track and the people loved them, much the same as British claims before its 1857 Indian mutiny.

The military is very slow to learn about Islamic culture having only confronted it since 1784 (five years before the Constitution was ratified) and battled them in 1801 (shores of Tripoli).  Fought Philippine Muslims since 1898 (took a break during WWII but still continues attempts at suppression.) In the post war era the military supported a number of surrogate wars across Africa and Asia and overthrew the only democratic elected Islamic government. There are still serving soldiers from the first Gulf War and soldiers have been in Afghanistan for eleven years still not understanding the culture. The Afghans do not want and will not accept life as a military colony. The strength of a military is to destroy but make only token attempts at building social structures. The military’s short view on development serves its own strategic need for long wars.  Constructing an Afghan state, they can afford, must be done by Afghans, advised by civilians skilled on social processes not strutting soldiers intent on prolonging war for their greater glory.