Caretaking

John Sherbino | Sep 01, 2021

The term ‘Caretaker Government’ being bandied about by the media and well fuelled by some party leaders is an insult to our system of government, our military and our civil service.

Our elected leaders do control the military and diplomatic purse-strings but none of them - even if they have served - have the comprehensive knowledge or experience to design, and carry out the globe-spanning procedure we’ve been watching in Afghanistan.

The simplistic view that the rapid success of the Taliban should have been foretold only underscores the lack of public knowledge regarding the social, economic and political history of the country as well as our governments’ (plural) waffling commitments to international affairs over the years.

Actions of our past governments ( and US, Russian, and others) helped set the stage for this event. The current federal government did not create this mess alone - it received excellent support from previous governments and voters.

This has been a remarkably successful operation by underfunded, under-equipped and obviously under-appreciated civil servants - military and non- military who are the real ‘Caretakers’ of our society.

It would have been nice if Afghan governments had wanted and had such a system, would it not?

John Sherbino