WHAT WOULD THE WORLD PEACE FORCE DO?

Disarm All Sides in Afghanistan

SYNOPSIS:

    If the World Peace Force existed at any level of strength,
its basic response to the problems in Afghanistan
would be to disarm all of the warring factions as much as possible
and then allow whatever political process might emerge.

    This would be in stark contrast to what the United States of America
was trying to do in the first decades of the 21st century.
The United States wanted to establish a Western democracy in Kabul.
But this externally-supported government was not popular with the people;
and the central government had little real control over the countryside.

OUTLINE:

1.  AFGHANISTAN WAS NOT A GOOD CANDIDATE
            FOR BECOMING A UNIFIED NATION-STATE.

2.  WHAT WOULD THE WORLD PEACE FORCE DO
            WITH A DISORGANIZED AREA RUN BY CRIMINAL WARLORDS?

3.  THE WORLD PEACE FORCE WOULD
            ROOT OUT TERRORIST TRAINING CAMPS.

4.  PRISONS TO CONTROL AND REHABILITATE FORMER TERRORISTS.

5.  HOW THE PROPOSED ACTIVITIES OF THE WORLD PEACE FORCE
            DIFFER FROM THE PAST BEHAVIOR OF THE U.S. MILITARY.

6.  THE WORLD PEACE FORCE WOULD BRING PEACE ON EARTH.

WHAT WOULD THE WORLD PEACE FORCE DO?

Disarm All Sides in Afghanistan
by James Leonard Park

1.  AFGHANISTAN WAS NOT A GOOD CANDIDATE
            FOR BECOMING A UNIFIED NATION-STATE.

    Because of the physical terrain and the political history
of the land now called Afghanistan,
it is not likely that a recognizable modern, unified nation-state
will emerge from the present situation.

    Instead, the actual reality on the ground
is that local warlords are the government.
Sometimes they are engaged in the poppy trade
—creating opium and its derivatives—
which is the main cash crop of Afghanistan.
Whatever their political ideology,
the warlords of Afghanistan must eat
and allow the people of their own areas to make a living.
This cash economy seems likely to be
heroin produced for the illegal markets of the West.
Organized behavior in rural Afghanistan is the growing,
harvesting, refining, & export of the products of the poppy.
The daily lives of many of the rural people
are organized around this form of agriculture and international trade.

    The central government of Afghanistan in Kabul
is opposed to the main cash crop of the country.
So which side is going to win in that conflict?
Unless the people living in the countryside
develop some other ways of supporting themselves,
they will continue to defy the central government
and produce what has proven to be a very successful cash crop.

    If the various peoples of Afghanistan want to continue their way of life,
they will be at odds with any Western-supported central government.
They will fight, when necessary, to preserve their economic interests.
The people in the countryside are well-armed already
—in order to protect their farms and their trade routes.
And, for the most part, they do not favor a central government,
since they rightly fear that any central government
would outlaw their way of making a living.

    How the cash economy of Afghanistan might change in the future
is beyond the scope of our concern here.
It is uncertain what a World Peace Force would do—if anything—
about the products of the poppy in Afghanistan.

    And the political future of Afghanistan is also uncertain.
If the weapons of war are removed from all sides in Afghanistan,
after 100 years, a completely different situation will have emerged.
Afghanistan might not be a unified country,
but however the people have organized themselves
after everyone has been disarmed
will probably be better than the present situation.

    It might take 100 years for the World Peace Force to emerge.
But at least we can begin to imagine what the world would look like
if there were no further armed conflicts.
The next generations of the peoples of Afghanistan
are not doomed to repeat the chaos of the past.

2.  WHAT WOULD THE WORLD PEACE FORCE DO WITH
            A DISORGANIZED AREA RUN BY CRIMINAL WARLORDS?

    The founding philosophy of the World Peace Force
includes not interfering in the internal affairs of any group of people.
It is not the role of the World Peace Force to enforce any drug laws.

    But the presence of the World Peace Force in Afghanistan
would first and foremost disarm all people who have weapons.
Wherever lethal weapons are found in the hands of the people,
such weapons will be taken away—by force if necessary.

    When the general population is disarmed,
local police forces will emerge
from whatever political structures the people create.
Perhaps the first police forces will follow the lines of tribal loyalty:
The kinship-structures of any given locality
will form the background of law-and-order.

    At first, these local centers of authority and order might be very small
compared to the whole map of Afghanistan.
There might be hundreds of local centers of power and order.
And there would be no attempt by the World Peace Force
to compel local governments to cooperate with one another.

    When localities see that the advantages of cooperation
outweigh the problems, they will find it in their best interests
to organize structures for the common good.
Because the means of mass communication already exist,
such cooperation is likely to emerge
much more quickly than in Medieval Europe.

    At first, commerce might be their priority:
They cannot continue their business
of raising and selling the products of the poppy
unless they have an organized system of getting their products
to the ultimate market, which pays them in cash. 

    As criminal gangs in the West are part of the distribution system,
so the originators of the products will have to cooperate
in order to get their drugs to the ultimate consumers.

    The role of the World Peace Force in all of this
is merely to make sure that people do not kill one another.
The internal authorities that emerge in Afghanistan
will have to make the ultimate decisions about growing poppies.
If other ways of making a living in that harsh land emerge,
then the local forces of law-and-order
might support such new ways of life.

    The World Peace Force would not establish democracy.
Nor would the WPF work to root out corruption.
Political and economic corruption will exist
wherever there is a power-structure.
Warlords rule in their own self-interest
and in the interest of their favored family members.
Whenever large sums of money pass thru government hands,
some of that money will stick to the hands of the bureaucrats in charge.
And whenever bureaucrats can require payment for their services,
the people who want anything from the government will pay.

     And even some relatively peaceful countries like Saudi Arabia
are controlled by a ruling class
that has no other claim to rule than the accident of birth.
Some people are born to rule and other are born to serve.
And the World Peace Force would not attempt
to change such monarchies or theocracies.

    But wherever the ruling class keeps itself in power by force of arms,
then universal disarmament will change that dynamic.
The forms of government might be changed
if there is no military supporting one group or another.

    The women of any country, such as Afghanistan,
might see that fewer of their children die
as the result of better systems of public order.
Peaceful cooperation might replace armed strife among tribes,
especially if the World Peace Force succeeds
in taking away all of the weapons of war.

3.  THE WORLD PEACE FORCE WOULD
            ROOT OUT TERRORIST TRAINING CAMPS.

    One of the basic reasons that the U.S. military forces
took over Afghanistan in 2001 was the fact that
al-Qaeda trained terrorists in wild areas of Afghanistan.
Thousands of 'Muslim' boys and men were trained to kill Westerners.
Afghanistan was then under the control of the Taliban,
a radical, political form of narrow-minded 'Islam'.

    There are still thousands of the Taliban fighting in Afghanistan.
In fact, they control more ground than the central government in Kabul.
We should remember that the Taliban ruled the whole country in 2001.
But now there are other centers of economic, political, & military power
—some closely allied with the central government and some not.

    If and when there is a World Peace Force,
one of its major responsibilities will be prevent terrorism like 9-11-2001.

    Whatever 'governments' control the land of Afghanistan,
the World Peace Force will be there looking for terrorists.
Large numbers of people cannot be hidden indefinitely.
They all need food, water, & other supplies.
So following the pathways of supply will lead to any training camps.

    The peace-loving people of Afghanistan will help the World Peace Force
find and destroy all forms of military training.
The only forms of military force then permitted on the Earth
will be the men and women of the World Peace Force itself.

    Even the central government of Afghanistan—if there is one—
will NOT be permitted to have any military forces.
Governments will only be permitted to have local police forces,
which will not be equipped or trained to fight in any wars.
For example, local police have no need for tanks, ships, or planes.
Local police will have no weapons of mass death.

    And if the World Peace Force
needs to be very strong in Afghanistan for many years,
then large numbers of soldiers from other countries
will be recruited by the World Peace Force
to prevent the peoples of Afghanistan from killing one another.

    If Afghanistan presents a particularly difficult case for disarmament,
then hundreds of thousands of the soldiers of the World Peace Force
can be deployed in Afghanistan to investigate every corner of that land.

    And good detective work (with the cooperation of peace-loving people)
will prevent the creation of any new militant camps.

    The World Peace Force will already have investigated other countries,
where sometimes small groups of men (mostly men)
are arming and training themselves for real and imagined conflicts. 
In the most civilized countries of the world, such as the USA,
the local police will cooperate with the World Peace Force
to root out para-military groups of any ideological bent.
Para-military groups will be outlawed everywhere on Earth.



4.  PRISONS TO CONTROL AND REHABILITATE FORMER TERRORISTS.

    When people are arrested for violating the peace of the world,
they will be put into safe prisons for the rest of their lives
—or until they can prove that they have recovered from the belief system
that got them involved with militant movements.
They will prove their commitment to peace
by giving useful information about their former comrades-in-arms,
which will allow more militants and terrorists to be taken into custody. 

    Since failed states are the most likely places for terrorists to hide,
such states will be given special attention by the World Peace Force,
looking especially carefully for training facilities for terrorists
and any other military operations.
No country in the world will be permitted to have armed forces.
No private armies will train for warfare—or any form of violence.

    The World Peace Force would address the problems in Afghanistan
by establishing large prisons or prison camps,
which could house all violent people when they are captured.
Prisons would be prepared for thousands of men.
Some of these prisons would be in Afghanistan and some in Pakistan.
The World Peace Force would need no permission to cross borders.
Beginning with good estimates of the number of warriors to be disarmed,
the prisons would be created before the capture-operations begin.
And the prisons would be expanded
if a larger-than-expected number of former militants are captured.

    When capture is preferred over death,
and when the conditions in the prison camps are known to all,
then at least some former warriors would surrender voluntarily
rather than risk death in the capture-operations of the World Peace Force.
The less-committed soldiers would give up without a fight.
They will choose prison-camps rather than the life of wandering warriors.

    The WPF would use peace-keepers who speak the local languages.
And because their only role would be to prevent killing,
they would be welcomed by all peace-loving people in Afghanistan.
The officers of the World Peace Force
would never be regarded as foreign killers
or as supporters of any particular form of government.
The World Peace Force would not be controlled by any country on Earth.
And the WPF would not enforce any preconceived order or politics.

    And when former militants are put into prisons,
there is some possibility that they might be rehabilitated
so that they can re-join whatever peaceful Afghan society emerges.
Peace-loving relatives might help former fighters to become peaceful.
And any fighters originally from other countries
would (once rehabilitated) return to their homelands.

    And when fighters know that prison rather than death
is their destiny when they are caught,
some of them will more easily give up the fight.
Thus by means of prisons instead of instant death,
the total number of armed militants will be steadily reduced
rather than increased as a result of the activity of the World Peace Force.

    Some men fight for the Taliban because they are paid.
Surrendering to the World Peace Force for a safe place in prison,
which would include rehabilitation to re-join civilized society,
might be a better alternative than risking their lives for pay.

    Another on-line essay explores the possibility of
religious prisons for violent 'Muslims'.

    All military forces of the central government of Afghanistan
would also be disarmed and demobilized.
Some of these could become officers of local police forces.
But most would return to civilian life.
And some will be rehabilitated in prison camps
until they are prepared to pursue non-violent ways of life.



5.  HOW THE PROPOSED ACTIVITIES OF THE WORLD PEACE FORCE
            DIFFER FROM THE PAST BEHAVIOR OF THE U.S. MILITARY.

    Disarming all sides in Afghanistan differs sharply
from the military methods pursued by the United States in 2009-2011.
What is wrong with the following picture?
The President of the United States of America
can single-handedly order thousands of U.S. soldiers
to go to Afghanistan to fight for the central government.

    Soldiers have been trained to kill 'the enemy'.
And if 'the enemy' cannot be located to be killed,
the military occupation of the country will force 'the enemy' to move
to still-more-remote parts of the countryside.
And if those places become unsafe,
the people being hunted by the U.S. soldiers
will move to other places on the Earth, especially neighboring Pakistan.

    Some intelligent people in Afghanistan
say that their country had two enemies at once:
The Taliban, who would return Afghanistan to their form of law-and-order,
and the American occupiers, who had a nebulous mission
and who were mainly killed by road-side bombs
simply because most Afghans did not want foreign troops on their soil.

    How would we Americans feel
if we had Afghan soldiers patrolling our streets and countryside?
Would we cooperate with soldiers who spoke broken English
and who seemed to have no reason to be present in America?
Many of us would try to kill them just because they were here,
no matter what 'reasons' they might offer for their presence.
And how would we feel when our friends and relatives
are killed by Afghan soldiers on American soil?

    Within the living memory of the oldest residents of the Earth,
three countries thought it was their right and duty to rule the world:
Germany, Japan, & Italy fought the Second World War
hoping that they would defeat all other countries.
In the eyes of poorly-educated Afghans,
how different did this seem from what they were experiencing
at the hands of the United States and a few allies?
Did it seem to ordinary people in Afghanistan
that the United States of America was trying to rule their country?

    A few generations earlier in world history,
the most advanced nations of the world
felt it was their duty to control the less-developed nations.
So they made colonies and protectorates of many defenseless lands.
Can we really explain to the Afghan peoples that the USA
was not engaging in the familiar practice of colonialism or imperialism?

    Whatever the political or tribal loyalties,
when any person in Afghanistan was killed by American military actions,
there were dozens of relatives who therefore hated the foreign occupiers.
And some of those relatives joined to oppose the occupation.
Thus, killing Afghan people for thirteen years produced no peace.
(The U.S. military forces withdrew at the end of 2014.)

    The WPF would deploy only soldier who speak the local languages.
The peace-loving peoples of Afghanistan would welcome their presence.
Some Afghans would attempt to use the World Peace Force
to control or kill their perceived enemies.
But the World Peace Force would remain neutral
in any and all tribal, political, or personal disputes.

    After a few years of occupation by the World Peace Force,
almost everyone would agree that the order created by such forces
has been good for everyone in Afghanistan.
The various sides who were previously trying to kill one another
would agree that talking is better than shooting.

    And after peace has been established by the World Peace Force,
then the various factions of Afghanistan would begin to think
of how to create a country where people can live in peace,
where they can conduct their economic lives as they see fit,
and where they can live with their families in a peaceful country.

    Instead of trying to impose Western-style democracy on Afghanistan,
the World Peace Force would just
allow the Afghans to create whatever political order works for them.

    On December 1, 2009, U.S. President Obama announced
that he was sending 30,000 additional U.S. soldiers to Afghanistan,
bringing the U.S. military presence to about 100,000.
Was this a costly mistake for the USA?
Military methods failed in the past, so why attempt more of the same?

     On June 22, 2011, President Obama announced
that 33,000 troops would be withdrawn over the next two years,
beginning with 10,000 troops withdrawn in the second half of 2011.
23,000 more would be withdrawn by September 2012.

    The Taliban are no threat to the United States of America.
They merely want to regain control of Afghanistan.
The World Peace Force would not join any side of a civil war.

    But al-Qaeda was a threat to world peace.
So all the peace-loving people of the world would agree
to put such militants into prisons when they are caught.
Military methods will not defeat the religious ideology of radical 'Islam'.
Killing members of al-Qaeda will only swell their ranks
with new militants drawn to the cause by such 'Muslim' martyrdom.

6.  THE WORLD PEACE FORCE WOULD BRING PEACE ON EARTH.

    Whenever the World Peace Force sends soldiers to any place on Earth,
killing soon comes to an end.
Their purpose is not to support any side in a civil war.
They will not give arms to any fighting forces.
In fact, one of the first things the WPF would do
would be to seal the borders and the airspace
to make sure that no foreign arms
are delivered to any fighters anywhere in that country.
And the World Peace Force would seek out and destroy
all forms of manufacturing of weapons within the borders.

    Because the World Peace Force can go anywhere,
with or without the prior permission of governments,
they can move quickly in response to new information.
And they will have the best spy-equipment available to them,
to help them discover military movements anywhere on planet Earth.

    The World Peace Force will disarm the Earth,
beginning with the most obvious violators of the peace.



AUTHOR: 

    James Park is an independent writer,
living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
His views are entirely his own
and do not represent the views of any religious or political organizations.
Much more about him will be discovered on his website:
James Leonard Park—Free Library
Created August 5, 2009; Revised 8-13-2009;
10-7-2009; 11-4-2009; 11-28-2009; 12-2-2009; 12-12-2009; 12-14-2009;
8-29-2010; 3-25-2011; 6-23-2011; 6-23-2011; 10-8-2011;
5-4-2012; 8-1-2012; 9-4-2013; 9-24-2013; 9-26-2013;
8-9-2014; 12-28-2014; 10-15-2015; 4-29-2016; 1-11-2017; 2-15-2020;

    World Peace Force—Early Thinking
This link leads to a collection of other essays by James Park
dealing with various dimensions of the proposed World Peace Force.

The most relevant of these are:

WHAT WOULD THE WORLD PEACE FORCE DO?
When National Governments Collapse

Enlightened Presidents of the United States
Could Use the U.S. Military Forces
as an Interim World Peace Force

RELIGIOUS PRISONS
TO REHABILITATE ISLAMIC TERRORISTS

These on-line essays are being gathered into a book:
World Peace Force: Disarming the Planet Earth.
The chapter on Afghanistan is Chapter 12:
"Disarm All Sides in Afghanistan".

Readers interested in this approach to world peace
are invited to join a Facebook Group called:
PEACE ON EARTH:
ESTABLISH A WORLD PEACE FORCE,
THEN DISARM ALL NATIONS:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/199878276819122/

As soon as 100 people join this Facebook Seminar,
we will begin an organized discussion of the book.
Here is a complete description of this opportunity:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/ED-WPF.html

Go to the beginning of this website
James Leonard Park—Free Library