Afghanistan Needs Its Fix

If there is a War for Dummies book, I'm pretty sure one of the first pointers is, “Do not invade Afghanistan.”
Afghanistan, that wartorn muddy bloody mire of conflict, has seen one world superpower break entry and be defeated, only to suffer the presence of another – and “shoot” for the same conclusion. If Barack Obama thought the United States could institute government in Afghanistan without running into the problems that every other aggressor since Alexander the Great faced, he needs to adjust his strategy.
Even if the United States isn't seeking to raise the conqueror's flag over the country, that doesn't mean that Afghans do not see American troops as enemies. These are people that have seen their country devastated several times over by foreigners. The last thing they want is someone who is not of their country setting up the guidelines for governing it.
Yet it seems that Americans, especially modern American presidents, don't understand why people have a problem with that. George W. Bush somehow managed to establish a precedent for LDIs (Legitimized Democratic Invasions), which means that the United States has the right to send troops anywhere in the world and plant the seeds of democracy – as well as water them and set up large plastic supports to make sure they grow.
I use the abbreviation LDI because it sounds more like the name for a virus; in fact, it could also stand for Legitimized Democracy Injection. The problem is that these countries that are receiving the injections are more than ready with a large dose of antibodies, not to mention that countries are quite a bit bigger than human cells.
Afghanistan's immune system is tried and true. It has resisted every threat that it has encountered, which is odd, considering the country is not very healthy in the first place. Afghanistan is in need of development, especially with its agricultural economy tied up in the drug trade. In some ways, a restructuring of its vitals would be vastly beneficial, but it also might not necessarily work.
Obama's critics and even his generals are saying that more troops are needed to “win the war” in Afghanistan. The military buffs seem to think that eliminating the Taliban presence will magically fix the problems. They are definitely a decisive factor in the country's future, but they are more like an outside force vying for dominance, rather than an inherent feature of the country.
Whatever needs to be done to stabilize Afghanistan's situation cannot come from an LDI. Election fraud cannot be avoided with foreign military intervention. An entire country, one profoundly different and with a much more chaotic history than the US, cannot just receive an injection of armed forces and expect to be democratized. No, that change must come from within, and if Obama doesn't realize this in time, any military strategy he chooses will be in vain. Or in other words, this LDI will miss its vein.