BEGINNING last Sunday, the Department of Defense started dropping leaflets alongside bombs over Afghanistan. These leaflets address a wide range of issues pertinent to Afghanistan - for example, how to collect food packets in aid drops, why not to support the Taliban, and how to surrender to U.S. troops on the ground. Though on the surface this effort seems good-intentioned, it smacks of an overly-manipulative foreign policy. The United States' use of propaganda drops in Afghanistan is wrong and should be stopped.
Leaflets touting the United States' good intentions now accompany high-powered explosives on their way to the ground over Kabul and Kandahar. These leaflets proclaim that the "coalition of nations is here to help" the people of Afghanistan rid themselves of the oppressive Taliban regime.
American meddling in the lives of the Afghans - trying to persuade them to favor bombing of Taliban supported camps and areas of Afghanistan - is terribly misguided. We have to remember that American interference in the lives of the Afghans helped bring the Taliban regime to power for Afghanistan's war with the Soviets. America's abandonment of Afghanistan in the subsequent 20 years of civil war left a bitter taste in the mouths of Afghans. Now, as the United States pulverizes Taliban bases, camps and airfields, we are again trying to convince the people of Afghanistan to side with our views.
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The objective of the leaflets seems clear enough - help remove the Taliban from power, while at the same time support the bombing raids of the United States. Additionally, one can judge the Taliban as an oppressive regime - its record of human rights abuses and suppression of free expression is extensive. Nevertheless, the United States' bombing of Taliban strongholds is a clear enough message of our wants. We don't have to "help" the Afghans decide what is right for them.
Groups in Afghanistan and worldwide always will oppose the United States' military operations, ill-intentioned or not. Dropping leaflets will not persuade anyone that the "coalition of nations" has a noble or positive mission - minds have long been made up. Dropping leaflets alongside bombs sends the message that America seeks approval of the war even from the country it attacks. This is an unrealistic goal.
Additionally, propaganda drops will bolster international perception of the United States' ethnocentrism and lack of regard for the Afghans' wants. The view of the United States as ethnocentric already has been a problem in the war, particularly with nations like Iran and Egypt. Propaganda distribution only provides these nations with more ammunition to claim the United States is acting carelessly, out of selfish interests, or attacking Islam.
Propaganda long has been used in war. Posters in the United States from World War II encouraged Americans to "beat back the Hun." Hitler used propaganda to help turn Germany against Jews. Castro used propaganda in Cuba to prop up the legitimacy of his Communist regime.
This, however, is the 21st century and a very different war. The Taliban, unlike past enemies, is fueled by an extremist hate of the Western world. For its leaders, propaganda will never take precedence over the will of Allah. If anything, propaganda drops only serve to weaken the integrity of the United States in the eyes of the world - we increasingly will be seen as a country trying to get our way, bent on winning the approval of everyone, even those we attack.
A far more viable and realistic alternative to propaganda is to continue to pursue close diplomatic ties with all those involved in supporting strikes against the Taliban. Diplomatic channels helped assemble this force. Diplomatic channels forged agreements for military and logistical support for strikes against the Taliban. Diplomatic channels will be the strongest foundation from which the United States can maintain support for its efforts against the Taliban, and in any case, will prove far more effective than rallying support within Afghanistan by dropping pamphlets alongside high-grade explosives.
Countries like Turkey have in their daily contacts with the United States continued to share intelligence and pledge support to our efforts. French President Jacques Chirac, who was earlier reluctant to join the war effort, visited Washington two weeks ago and pledged French troops to the efforts against the Taliban.
Diplomatic methods have been and will continue to be effective in rallying support for this fight. Given the strength of the current coalition, with over a dozen nations participating in some form, there is no reason to believe support for anti-Taliban efforts will falter. In contrast, the lack of any recent anti-Taliban uprising in Afghanistan helps show that the United States' propaganda isn't having its desired effect on the Afghan people. Propaganda drops already have become an ineffective waste of time.
If the United States doesn't stop propaganda drops in Afghanistan immediately, it will be judged harshly in the future. These drops are an attempt to manipulate the will of the Afghans and curry international favor for the war. America is now at war with the Taliban in part because of its past interference in Afghanistan. One can only speculate how historians will evaluate us if we now continue to meddle in the lives of Afghans.
(Austen Givens is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.)
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