Afghan Nation-Building Programs Criticized In Senate Report

it’s a false analogy comparing Germany and Japan after the WWII with the ‘nation-bu­ilding’ in Afghanista­n.

It's impossible to unite, and do it quickly (sooner than half a century at least) a diverse mix of peoples half the size of the UK population inhabiting a land mass 2 1/2 times larger than the UK with fluid borders broken into a large number of ethnic groups by far more diverse than those here or in any other European country.

The way of life, languages, customs, etc., differ alot, and not only among the major groupings, e.g. the Pashtuns at the lower end of the Hindu Kush and the Baluchs of the Helmand province (and all run by competing warlords), but among the dozen or so Pahstun tribes (like the Jaji and the Shinwari). Most of the ethnic tribes (around 80 percent) are Sunni Muslim, but some like the Hazara claim their ancestry in the the Xinj-jiand province of China. Add to that the Tajhiks, Uzbeks, Nuristanis­, Turkmens, Baluchs and others and the cultural gap between the many tribes and sub-tribes far exceeds that between the ethnic Albanian Muslims and the indigenous Scots.

What underpins all this cultural diversity is, "Who is going to be in control?"  There's little in it for the tribal lords to cede power to Kabul. 

Europe’s federaliza­tion of the tribes of Europe culturally less diverse than those of Afghanista­n is resented by many. What's being proposed in Afghanista­n goes beyond that, it’s the attempt to create not a federal polity, but a unified state with common institutio­ns and central command and control.
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