Peter Tomsen Quotes
The Soviets have made the same core mistakes that have haunted invaders before and since them: they attempted to impose a centralized order on a highly decentralized nation, and they displayed complete ignorance of the realities of Afghanistan society.
The Russians had invaded Afghanistan and, like the earlier invaders who had also failed, they did not understand the people or their culture. (See {634659}). They tried to impose a centralized Communist government, not realizing that the Afghanistan people were not experienced with any kind of central government. There was some tribal structure but that was mostly a traditional consensus process. Most Afghan men were the “kings” of their own families and did not respond to any other governance though they can be nfluenced by tribal leaders, warlords, and imams.
Peter Tomsen, United States Special Envoy to Afghanistan, United States Ambassador to Armenia, Quoted in Jonah Blank, Invading Afghanistan Then and Now, Foreign Affairs, September / October 2011
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
One of the reasons that foreign superpowers have failed in their efforts in Afghanistan is that they tried to install and work through a central, national government. See {634657} and {634659}.
At first reading, this quotation appears to have been made in 2013 with respect to the American-led Coalition in the Afghan War in 2013. But this was 133 years earlier. Little had changed.
In 1832 the President sent Edmund Roberts, a New Hampshire sea captain, to arrange commercial treaties with Asian countries such as Burma, Indo-China, Siam and Japan:
The vice president did not heed his own warning and was one of the major forces starting the Iraq war to take down the Saddam Hussein government.
The Russians, who had invaded Afghanistan successfully, then proceeded to lose Afghanistan.
The neocons tend to believe that if we can invade a dictatorial country and depose the tyrant, the people could then establish a democracy and that in turn will stimulate neighbors to overthrow their tyrannical rulers and also establish a democracy. The difficulty with that theory as was shown in Iraq, one of their instigated invasion, is that while there are always a small minority of the people who share Western views on Democracy and human rights, most of the people do not. Theocrats, fanatics, fascists, ultranationalists, all strive to shape the society to their view (and settle old scores) and the result is either gridlock or Civil Wars, The societies do not have the institutions to support a democratic society and we do not have sufficient nation building skills, to make up for the shortcomings.
The Romanovs were the family of the Russian Czars while the Hapsburgs were the family names of the Emperors of Austria. The Austrian Army Chief of Staff hated the Russians and was constantly urging war against Czarist Russia. The archduke, the heir to the Austrian throne, was constantly arguing against attacking Russia. When Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, it triggered WWI. He was no longer able to have a voice against war, and Austria and Russia were soon at war. At the end of WWI, the Austrian Empire—an ally of Germany was broken up and the Russian Revolution ended the Romanov dynasty. The Archduke was absolutely right.
A few months later, that is exactly what Germany did. She was hoping that England would not enter the war despite her treaty obligations, but she was willing to risk the possibility. The Czar had a strong espionage and intelligence service active in Germany, but, like so many other intelligence failures, the intelligence operatives and analysts had military and economic facts but had little understanding of the German culture which propelled Germany to what to most other cultures was “irrational policy making.” People and nations often engage in irrational activities, even against their own self-interest.
- Born: November 19, 1940
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Foreign Service
Peter Tomsen, is a retired American diplomat and educator, serving as United States Special Envoy to Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992, and United States Ambassador to Armenia between 1995 and 1998. Ambassador Tomsen’s thirty-two year diplomatic career emphasized South and Central Asia, Northeast Asia and the former Soviet Union.
