Growing up in high school, my history teachers always taught us that the political spectrum was a straight line. On the left you had communists, socialists, and liberals and on the right you fascists, reactionaries, and conservatives. It's no wonder that so many people have made so many mistakes when dealing with other nations. The straight liners got their idea from the French Revolution. The radicals sat on the left and the loyalists sat on the right. Ergo, the right stood for status quo while the left stood for progress. The nature of describing politics is a lot easier this way, but not necessarily accurate.
When I studied political science in college we were invited to rethink how things worked and it quickly dawned on me that the political spectrum took on a different shape altogether. When you stop to think about it, it makes all of our international relationships become more clear. It helps explain why we get along with certain folks and why we don't get along with certain folks. In short, the political spectrum takes the following shape.
No, it is not a golf hole specifically, but a circle. It just happens to be one of my favorite types of circles. If you picture the top half of the circle (or north pole) you get anarchy. Like with the earth, there is no exact north pole but a place everyone has agreed should be depicted as the north pole. There is no such thing as anarchy in any reality we recognize. There are moments when it exists, but it is not a sustainable form of government. So, it is a theoretical position. At the south pole exists totalitarianism. Like with anarchy, it is does not exist exactly, because no government can control everything you do at every moment. They can only control most activities and limit as many thoughts as possible.
Now, Republicans and Democrats both exist near the north pole. We both agree in the concept of limited government, but disagree on what the government's role should be. On the opposite side of the globe you have the Taliban, communists, fascists, and other dictatorships that we deal with in the Middle East. The circular political spectrum has a lot of applications, but here we look at why we have been unsuccessful in winning hearts and minds around the globe.
When you think about it, the concept of constitutional democracy (or representative democracy) is rare indeed. As Americans we take this style of government for granted, but very few nations practice it. Sure, some have legislatures and some have real elections with terms for heads of state, but the idea of legal limits and checks and balances is nearly unheard of outside of the U.S. and Great Britain. Now, which country did we come from again? Our neighbors to the north and to the south had different influences and therefore are considerably different despite their proximity to us.
The concept of nation building is repugnant to some, but moreover, it is a fool's errand. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. Americans were universally for the war in Afghanistan even after the Iraq debacle. We may not have been in favor of how it was run, but the fact that Al Queda had ties there was never in doubt. Yet, it seems this is a peculiarly American trap throughout our history as a superpower. A simple mandate of hunting down terrorists or keeping North Korean or North Vietnamese at bay is too simple a task. We feel compelled to do more even if more isn't possible.
Again, it is not a conservative or progressive issue. Both sides agreed back in 2001 that the terrorists should be hunted down. It caused progressives to relent to Iraq based on falsified evidence. The evidence in Afghanistan was always clear. What we are doing there now isn't so clear. Just like in the real southern and northern hemispheres, what is up is down and what is cold is hot. Some people are used to being told what to do. There is a certain comfort in that even at the same time that we feel comfortable with our autonomy. It's the way the world works, both hemispheres.
By theoretical philosophy I'm an anarchist but since that's not in the cards anytime soon, I rest my philosophy on what's best for the whole world. I have no idea what that makes me other than persona non grata among most of my colleagues. Oh well...I have to save the world, you have to save the world, everyone that reads here has to save the world. So lets save the world. Afghanistan is part of the world!