Making friends

There’s nothing like success to firm up old friendships and attract new ones. In the last week, France, Germany and Japan have clamored to join the United States and Britain in the military end of the war on terrorism. Their support is important, of course, but the United States also may be finding friends in the Middle East, where protests to the war are fading and the acute sensitivity the Bush administration has tried to show toward Islam is having a positive effect.

The best opportunity for demonstrating America’s sincerity toward these friendships remains in Afghanistan, where a coalition government is forming and the need for food aid is huge. By staying interested in Afghanistan’s future government, by delivering significant amounts of food and helping international relief agencies do their work effectively, the United States can demonstrate that it understands terrorism isn’t stopped only through retaliatory bombing but also through helping people feed their families and feel safe in their own homes.

Direct food aid is crucial now first because cold weather will make other sources more scarce and later shipments more difficult and second because international relief agencies should be allowed to establish broad areas of operation that could be expected to continue no matter what the precise shape of the future government. Reports that the northern alliance is little better politically than the Taliban seem particularly over-stated but, considering the concerns of Pakistan, forming a new government could take months.

This type of support not only is the humanitarian thing to do, it is the proper strategy toward maintaining a coalition should the war on terrorism move on to Iraq or the four other nations – North Korea, Syria, Libya and Iran – prominently cited last weekend by administration officials for violating germ-weapon treaties. The U.S. reputation of supporting another nation only so long as it was useful to achieving a larger political aim has bred resentment and hostility in the past. An approach that creates stability and opportunity for a peaceful, more prosperous existence would be something more than a quid pro quo and demonstrate that the United States understands the value of using more than military muscle.

To the administration’s credit, Secretary of State Colin Powell’s recent careful comments on the Arab-Israeli conflict, especially in regard to building on the West Bank and in Gaza and the call for the arrest of terrorists, will further strengthen friendly ties abroad. If the war, as seems likely, heads for the Persian Gulf, emphasizing fair conditions for peace talks will only help the U.S. cause.

The noose, to use the administration’s grim metaphor (or maybe it’s not a metaphor), is tightening around Osama bin Laden’s neck. Any day now, Middle East experts will start appearing on talk shows to describe how he was not the brains behind the terrorist operations and to meet the real bad guys the United States will have to go to Country X. Before leaving Afghanistan, the United States has plenty of work left to ease its path to wherever the war on terrorism next takes it.