By Brian Darling- Vladimir Putin must be laughing his way to the bank. As his nation makes inroads across Europe, America is in full, embarrassing retreat from Afghanistan.
I’ve supported leaving Afghanistan for years, yet President Joe Biden’s Afghanistan departure been shameful in its execution. Chaos and danger dominate the nation, even though Biden was presented with a number of less bad options to prevent American soldiers from spending another 20 years in Afghanistan. Our mission creep into a goal of training the Afghan military on defending freedom and the political class on how to run a country turned out to be a failed nation-building experiment…but Biden still chose the worst option. It is sad to see that country taking a big step backwards.
Part of our problem in Afghanistan was that we and our allies provided all of the infrastructure. But just as you can’t put lipstick on a pig, and no Shark Tank investor can make a company with bad financials succeed, America couldn’t force success on Afghanistan. And, so, we must learn the real lesson of our retreat: any foreign engagements must become investments which benefit all parties – America and the nations in which we are engaged.
I mentioned Putin earlier for a reason. America has spent billions supporting Ukraine’s military against Russia since 2014. But that’s the same military approach we took in Afghanistan. What America must help Ukraine do is actually stand on its own two feet, or once again we’ll have wasted billions to end up back at zero.
Ukraine, long been known as the ‘Breadbasket of Europe’ because of vast farmlands, should be a successful post-Soviet nation. Yet its GDP ranks at the bottom of Europe and, according to the World Bank, “Ukrainians continue to feel that more needs to be done to improve governance. Lack of trust in public institutions remains a fundamental concern for most people.” Corruption is a huge part of this problem – as The Heritage Foundation’s 2021 Index of Economic Freedom found, Ukraine’s government “will need to boost investor confidence by continuing to upgrade the investment code and by undertaking deep and comprehensive reforms to strengthen rule-of-law institutions and improve the protection of property rights, judicial effectiveness, and government integrity.” The economy of Ukraine should not be last in all of Europe with the natural resources it has available, yet corruptive interference in the economy and no respect for the rule of law has made Ukraine vulnerable to Russian interference.
Trade is an important element to put a wedge between Ukraine and Russia, and to build the kind of infrastructure that was never in place in Afghanistan, but why would anyone invest in such a corrupt nation? One case study shows what happened to one private-sector investor, TIU Canada. Michael Yurkovich, CEO of TIU Canada, was recently on Bloomberg where he pointed out that a Russian backed oligarch effectively shut down a solar plant because it competed against the oligarch’s business. Yurkovich alleged that the competitor, “directed one of his companies to violate the laws of Ukraine and he physically disconnected us” from the national power grid. The goal of TIU Canada was a diversification strategy that helped Ukraine to produce renewable energy that would forward the goal of energy independence from Russia. Instead, Yurkovich and other potential and actual investors in Ukraine are watching to see if the case will be resolved fairly – or if Ukraine is simply unable and unwilling to help its people by seeking positive foreign investment.
TIU Canada’s case has less to do with the specifics of this company and more to do with the way Ukraine will be viewed by free nations and foreign investors. The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has pledged to restore the rule of law and crackdown on corruption, yet situations like the TIU controversy persist. As Afghanistan falls apart thanks to the Taliban and our lack of proper investment, the Ukraine court system is being tested by the solar plant’s closure as the rest of the country is being tested Russia’s economic warfare via Nord Stream II and other actions. Government statements might be a good sign, but it’s useless without real action – action that must be prompted by the U.S. in a way which we never did in Afghanistan.
America can’t afford to lose to Russia as we lost to the Taliban. We must have a better, more comprehensive strategy for success that precludes nation-building and involves real, long-term strategic thinking. The neocons would say we should support Ukraine as we did Afghanistan; but our investment is only worthwhile if we learn the lessons of Afghanistan to create a stronger Ukraine to create a better America.
Brian Darling is former Sr. Communications Director for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
