In today’s Opinion Journal, David Rieff argues, I believe correctly, that we are going to have to take a more activist role in the rebuilding of Afghanistan than simply letting political events take their course while pledging aid, and we cannot count on the UN to do it right. That is a recipe for a return to the chaos, factionalism and oppression that we have seen for the past decades. While the people themselves might choose democracy, it isn’t clear that they will be allowed to, absent a forceful approach by the US. Otherwise, our aid will be wasted as much of the IMF and World Bank funding is today.

If we are going to have an equivalent of a Marshall plan, we will have to follow the successful political model implied by that, as we did in Japan and Germany–a temporary (benign as possible) colonialization to allow time for the inculcation of the values of democracy and freedom. Unfortunately, experience also indicates that this is a job that will take not months, but years, and perhaps a decade or more.

The same will apply to other countries (e.g., Iraq) that we liberate as part of this war.