Business as usual.

Editor,

Mr. Gates comes across as sincere, and he probably really does believe he is bringing "modernity" -- whatever that is -- to Afghanistan. He has genuinely accepted the white man's burden, in other words, and his aspiration is probably not merely to transform Afghanistan into the underwear-sewing and running shoe-assembly center of South Asia.

But I believe he is chasing a chimera. Afghan society is what it is: ruled in certain instances by brutal thugs and in others by congenial older gentlemen; an American X-Box enthusiast is not trapped in every Afghan citizen.

To fold Afghanistan into the global corporate money machine is an obvious undertaking, impossible and immoral as it is, to a War Secretary in the the U.S. government, and Star Trek's prime directive does not steer the Pentagon, so Secretary Gates continues to do what he was hired to do.

re: "A Game That’s Not So Great" (12/13/2009)