Yesterday I wrote about some of the insights Ernest May had with regards to our foreign policy. May was very fond of asking questions before coming to decisions, which one would think would be rather obvious, yet does not necessarily appear to be the way most of our policies are decided. He had questions with regards to foreign cultures: "Who are they? How do they see things? Not, how do we presume that they see things. Not, how do we insist that they see things? Not, how do we hope they see things?"
I was reminded of these questions on reading Dexter Filkins' piece in today's NY Times. He quotes the CIA with regards to their explanation of why we have accepted so much corruption in Afghanistan: "What is acceptable to the Afghans is different than what is acceptable to you or me or our people." Yet, he also demonstrates why this reasoning is faulty as those Afghans who are not connected to the in crowd do not easily accept corruption. Yet we persist in our beliefs and policies even as their major bank is failing because of corruption.
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