Symbols 2

Normal human life is an exchange of symbols. We say a few words and pay a symbolic sum of money, and we get the object or the service we want.

Even not normal human life is an exchange of symbols. Like in the south of Afghanistan where a war is going on. The weapons used have an effect by themselves. Persons are hurt and even killed. But the main importance is on the level of meaning. 

The foreign soldiers can probably not win the war militarily. If all Taliban were killed it would be genocide.

So the use of weapons is symbolic, as way to convince the Taliban to be nice people, peaceful and democratic.

So far the strategy has not worked. The Taliban continue to fight, and in the areas they control they impose very strict Islamic rules.

Which strategy could work?

The future Afghanistan must be founded on the traditional roots. They are quite destroyed after decades of war. But they are Afghan and they are mainly Muslim. So the western ideas are alien.

If the global community wants to support Afghanistan, it should be done mainly by Muslim countries. It should be a meeting between friends.

The Taliban is a militant movement. To convince them to use peaceful means is difficult as the issue includes both power over land and religious ideas.

It is obvious that without the immediate threat of weapons, the people in Afghanistan prefer a non-radical Islam. 

So the chain of symbols that would make Afghanistan peaceful would be: Muslim soldiers instead of western, a peaceful, prosperous society as alternative to continuous war and the coexistence of different Muslim traditions.

Pakistan could be the practical example.