Sending the NYPD to Afghanistan

Hot Air Balloon in the Cairo Haze - photo by JoAnn Sturman

Scott Sturman
fliesinyoureyes.com

Afghanistan has degenerated into a policing action where the rules and objectives of combat have given way to those of constables and social scientists.  The United States military has been asked to step into the void and stabilize a notoriously corrupt country where the only constancy is instability and the switching of allegiances to gain an advantage over rival clans.  American armed forces have been given the impossible task of making this backward country a forward one, while being constrained by rules of engagement which puts servicemen at great personal risk.  GIs should not be used as policemen in this hapless third world country which has a tradition of making uninvited guests miserable.  America would do better to send the NYPD to Afghanistan in their place and let soldiers be soldiers.

In August 2011 Scientific American published an article “How New York Beat Crime” by Franklin Zimring; it provided some fascinating insights.  In the last two decades New York has seen an 80% fall in homicide, robbery, and burglary -  a drop unprecedented in urban history.  The circumstances surrounding this accomplishment occurred under the following conditions:

“...without changes in racial or ethnic profile and without lowering poverty or unemployment more than other cities. It did so without either winning the war on drugs or participating in the mass incarceration that has taken place throughout the rest of the country.”

“...a hopeful message from New York’s experience is that most crimes are largely a result of circumstances that can be changed without making expensive structural and social changes.  People are not doomed to commit crimes, and communities are not hardwired by their ethnic, genetic, and socioeconomic character to be at risk.”

The extraordinary levels of success sustained over long periods of time were due to a greater level of participation by police at the street level. 

Afghanistan needs policemen more than soldiers, as demonstrated by the success of the recent surge.  Stability and lower crimes rates are based on the number of cops on the beat, whether in Kabul or New York City.  However, at this stage in the  Afghanistan conflict, it is simply not worth the effort, money, or life of one more American soldier.  It is time to rely on efficient, covert intelligence networks and special operations and let this troubled land take charge of its domestic affairs and return to the glorious seventh century when life was simply perfect.  Along the way, if Afghanis want to emulate or hire the NYPD, it’s strictly up to them.