"Sense of security just an illusion"

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iacrobat

War Child
Joined
Sep 30, 2001
Messages
585
Location
Toronto
Just read this in the Toronto Star.
Asks some good questions, demands some good answers.

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Sep. 11, 2003. 01:00?AM

Sense of security just an illusion

JAMES TRAVERS

This is not an easy moment to ask hard questions. On this day of this month, grief, the increasingly gaudy theatre of daily life, and relentless pressure to seize political advantage from seminal events, all conspire to make introspection difficult, if not impossible.

But is there a better, more propitious time to reflect and to stick a bookmark in current history? Is there another time when we are more likely to ask if we are now significantly more secure, politically discerning or wise?

The answer to the first question is self-evident, the others elusive.

Two years ago, conventional wisdom held that the intrusion of realities that make much of the rest of the world so dangerous had changed this continent suddenly and forever. Retrospect suggests the conclusion was at best premature and at worst misleading.

Instead of changing everything, the attacks on New York and Washington shifted most things. It is as if the frame around experience and expectation is twisted, unfamiliar and unsettling.

Priorities are changed. Principles that once seemed sacrosanct are devalued, often without much debate. People made anxious by ill-defined threats are more alert but not much less vulnerable.

Those symptoms surface even here in a capital where distance from a new generation's ground zero makes both cause and effect less immediate.

With a sharp eye turned to its nervous neighbour, the federal government is in the 9/11 aftermath giving money and power that would have been spent on health and education to a police and security apparatus that can do more to make us feel protected than to make us safe.

It is playing fast and loose with civil liberties, sliding down a slippery slope that so far has only embarrassed agencies that, freed from the constraints of evidence, are finding ethereal conspiracies.

Most of all, widespread, if ill-defined, fear is a magnet drawing politicians toward tactics that offer only the appearance of leadership.

While some progress has been made, the cumulative effect doesn't inspire confidence.

Perhaps it is the failure to find Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein or weapons of mass destruction that makes intelligence seem a one-word oxymoron, but it is surely obvious that the expensively reinforced bricks and mortar can't protect an open society from the outrages of a few closed minds.

Rather than grasp the nettle of discouraging circumstance, the democratic body politic retreats into illusion. Legal rights and the fundamental freedom of privacy are eroded so no politician will have to admit that nothing was done. Leadership is measured by airtime in a 24/7 television universe, not the ability to choose and explain the best of less than perfect options.

It shouldn't be forgotten that George W. Bush found legitimacy for his presidency in catastrophic events. Nor should it be forgotten that the monotonous recital of hopelessly simplistic remedies is failing to accelerate the world toward lasting solutions.

All but ignored by societies distracted by the chaff of network news, Afghanistan teeters near chaos, putting at risk not only the lives of 1,900 Canadians serving there but the modicum of stability and social advancement gained when the Taliban was overthrown.

Once only a minor front in the War on Terrorism, Iraq is reconstructing itself not as an American model in the Middle East but as the locus for evil that Bush first fantasized in justifying a military campaign loaded with ulterior motives.

And, slightly to the west, the region's real open wound bleeds without any promise that the international community will find the courage or prescription to address a problem it chose to let fester for too long.

As important as it is today to remember the 2,792 victims, it is also important to remember that stunning adversity is part of the lives of nations. How they respond is an unwanted, yet crucial, test of their will.

That test will continue for years, perhaps decades. But the early reports are discouraging. After two years, we have only a little more than the illusion of progress, the illusion of security, to show for a continent's fixation on its exposure to a world of troubles.

Profligate spending on highly visible defences have not and will not close the inevitable loopholes in a society that finds its strength in openness.

A foolish war waged for other purposes is giving terrorism an expansive stage and renewed vigour.

And a political process that thrives on the willing suspension of public disbelief is demonstrably more cynical, more manipulative.

It is those questions ? questions about how we got from there to here in just 24 months ? that on this day of pain and remembrance still demand answers
 
It sounds like the author would prefer the pre 9/11 world, when we could live in blissful ignorance of the evil in this world.

What would be the author's alternative? What would the author like to see happened after 9/11 with a different president? A small strike on some remote camps in Afghanistan and probably not much more. The overthrow of the Taliban is dismissed as only a "modicum of stability and social advancement"!?!

Keep your head in the sand Mr. Travers, writing your GWB-hating hyperbole.

ps. the author didn't ask questions, just ranted with a number of statements.
 
The Taliban was truly evil, and I, for one, was glad when they were overthrown. Afghanistan is such a treacherous piece of geography for political unity and stability, but it's worth a try. They do need more security outside of Kabul. If Afghanistan hadn't gone to hell in a haybasket before anyone had ever heard of bin Laden and Co. this crud might not have happened. That's the real problem there, twenty + years of civil war and chaos.
 
That is part of the problem Verte. Most people were relatively ignorant of what the Taliban was all about, or could dismiss is as a Muslim problem "over there".

Couple a oppresive society with a doctrine of regional dominance and elimination of all "infidels" and you have a recipe for evil that must be addressed.
 
nbcrusader said:
That is part of the problem Verte. Most people were relatively ignorant of what the Taliban was all about, or could dismiss is as a Muslim problem "over there".

Couple a oppresive society with a doctrine of regional dominance and elimination of all "infidels" and you have a recipe for evil that must be addressed.

I agree, you just can't isolate a situation like that. What the Taliban did was in the press a little over here, but I didn't know anything about it myself until after the attacks. I felt the same emotions again when I read Jean Sasson's "Princess Trilogy". Whew! What a mess!!
 
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nbcrusader said:
The overthrow of the Taliban is dismissed as only a "modicum of stability and social advancement"!?!

Keep your head in the sand Mr. Travers, writing your GWB-hating hyperbole.

ps. the author didn't ask questions, just ranted with a number of statements.


The taliban is coming back and as soon as the US leaves Afganistan in 5 to 10 years they will shuffle right back in so it is an illusion right now that they're gone. Why are there so few US soldiers there ? I thought the US was supposed to rebuild Afghanistan and turn it into a democracy or at least that's what Bush has been saying for two years now, so what happened and why don't Americans ask these questions regarding there president instead of patting him on the back for everything ? Outside of Kabul the country is ruled by warlords who are supported by the US and why is the poppy fields of Afghanistan in full bloom again, I thought the US was against drugs ? :huh:
 
We're talking about changing a culture, not ordering fast food. Rebuilding Afghanistan into a democracy won't happen in two years.
 
nbcrusader said:
Rebuilding Afghanistan into a democracy won't happen in two years.

See, this implies Afghanistan was, at some point a democracy. It was not - democracy is essentially the way we think they should live over there. They just may disagree until kingdom come. There is no culture or tradition of democracy in Afghanistan or in Iraq.
 
It's true that neither Afghanistan nor Iraq has any background or tradition in democracy. They've lived under mostly absolute monarchies, with Sharia, or Islamic law, in force for centuries. It's questionable to me if they will ever be democracies as we understand the concept of democracy.
 
verte76 said:
The Taliban was truly evil, and I, for one, was glad when they were overthrown. Afghanistan is such a treacherous piece of geography for political unity and stability, but it's worth a try. They do need more security outside of Kabul. If Afghanistan hadn't gone to hell in a haybasket before anyone had ever heard of bin Laden and Co. this crud might not have happened. That's the real problem there, twenty + years of civil war and chaos.


They are that evil the US helped them in their fight against the Russians.
 
nbcrusader said:
It sounds like the author would prefer the pre 9/11 world, when we could live in blissful ignorance of the evil in this world.

What would be the author's alternative? What would the author like to see happened after 9/11 with a different president? A small strike on some remote camps in Afghanistan and probably not much more. The overthrow of the Taliban is dismissed as only a "modicum of stability and social advancement"!?!

Keep your head in the sand Mr. Travers, writing your GWB-hating hyperbole.

ps. the author didn't ask questions, just ranted with a number of statements.

No, I don't think the author would like to return to the "ignorance of evil"(whose ignorance? What is evil?) of the pre-9/11 world. I think he was/is looking for a better response than "you're either with us, or against us", and other simplistic talk that demonises and dehumanises. I think he was looking for more than instilling fear into America and the rest of the world(fear of America if you live in North Korea, Iran or any country that is "evil")

America (and Canada) are spending more on arms, more on "security measures" (human rights restrictions) and people feel less safe because fear is being pumped into them at the same time.

The response to 9-11 was a knee jerk reaction to go to war. There was no real debate. Now, Iraq and Afghanistan are not secure or necesarily safer than before and the future is unknown.

I think he hungers for, like many, a meaningful, thoughtful response. America is and propagates "evil" in the eyes of many in the world. No one asked why. I haven't heard any thoughtful responses from politicians on why people hate America enough to carry out something like Sept 11. I believe that is what Mr. Travers is searching for. Self-criticism never entered into the mindset of American politicians.
 
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Celticfc said:



They are that evil the US helped them in their fight against the Russians.

I know. The government claimed that they had to be virtuous in some way to oppose the evil Soviet Empire. Little did they understand that once they'd beaten the Soviets, they'd turn against the U.S, but that's exactly what happened.
 
verte76 said:
The Taliban was truly evil, and I, for one, was glad when they were overthrown. Afghanistan is such a treacherous piece of geography for political unity and stability, but it's worth a try. They do need more security outside of Kabul. If Afghanistan hadn't gone to hell in a haybasket before anyone had ever heard of bin Laden and Co. this crud might not have happened. That's the real problem there, twenty + years of civil war and chaos.
I think i am misunderstanding this, but worth a try ?

...and when it goes wrong, well. We tryed,.....
 
If the world community can help Afghanistan become a more stable, peaceful and prosperous society, it's worth a try because of all of the horrific suffering that's gone on in that country, and still is. I remember reading a shocking WHO report about the country. The report was based on information gathered before 9/11. People were dying all over of starvation and starvation-related disease. I was devastated after reading the report and wondered if there was anything I could do. Yes, give to the NGO's, Afghan nationals on the Internet told me. I was in contact with several of these people. They also asked me to contact my government and ask it to help stabilize their country. That place is still one big hellhole. There's an incredible amount of suffering going on and it's worth trying to stop. No one should have to live like this.
 
Here's an article I just found on an Afghanistan reconstruction site. As it shows the situation is grim but not hopeless.

The government of Afghanistan and the international development community acknowledge that the revival of the Afghanistan's national education system is an essential component in the reconstruction process of other developing sectors of the country. However, reconstruction of a war-shattered education system is a challenging agenda that the Afghan government and donor institutions have been facing since the collapse of the Taliban regime in 2001. It is widely reported that the national education indicators of Afghanistan "are among the worst in the world, with girls and rural populations particularly disadvantaged."

An institutional infrastructure that is almost completely destroyed, insufficient funding, lack of capacity, gender inequality, limited access to and poor quality of education are perennial issues that the Afghan education system experiences today. Most teachers are in need of training programs that would facilitate their transition into the workplace. Although demand is rapidly expanding, access to education remains limited and resources are scarce, especially in the remote provinces. Teaching is largely based on outdated pedagogical methods and materials. The fundamentalist narrow-mindedness still prevents many girls from attending school.

Nevertheless, for the last two years Afghanistan has experienced a number of success stories on the way to revive its, once well-respected, education system. Despite the scale and spread of the post-war reconstruction issues the national community is keen to rebuild its education system. The demand for primary education in Afghanistan is constantly rising. The education authorities of Afghanistan report that "more than 1.5 million school-age children will not be able to attend classes in 2003 because there are not enough schools or teachers." To address the shortage of teachers the government provides discounted food and free medical services to public teachers.

The Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA) in Education mission of 2002, jointly supported by the Asian Development Bank, the Afghanistan Assistance Coordination Authority, the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the European Community, the US Agency for International Development, and the United Nations, was a major milestone in the process of revival of the Afghanistan's education system. This initiative helped to develop the analytical framework, a budget proposal and program projects for 2003 and 2004, as well as identified and prioritized quick high-impact projects for the education sector of Afghanistan. The mission triggered a number of development projects and programs in primary, secondary, tertiary, youth/adult/vocational and technical education sub-sectors of the system.

The government of Afghanistan and international funding institutions consider reconstruction of the primary education to be of highest priority. This is justified by the importance of primary education in education cycle and the magnitude of the issue in Afghanistan. In March 2002 many Afghan children received a long-awaited opportunity to return to school. Within the last two years, the number of children enrolled in schools has tripled to almost three million. More than four million new primary school textbooks were distributed around the country, in an emergency back-to-school program jointly funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations Children's Education Fund and Afghanistan's interim government. According to the United Nations (UNICEF) this program "reached over 2.3 million school children in Afghanistan to date of which 30 percent are girls".

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the government of Germany jointly established a funds-in-trust to finance the upgrading of textbooks and renewal of the education curriculum. In addition, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in February 2003 allocated $60 million for a three-year plan to renovate 1,000 schools, print textbooks and train teachers. Help The Afghan Children ? the U.S. based NGO - built the first girl's middle school in Nejrab District, which accepted over 700 students.

As a part of its capacity building mission in Afghanistan, International Rescue Committee (IRC) held a 15-day management training for 25 ministerial personnel and administrative training for 49 headmasters in Kabul. More than 30,000 teachers received training in a program with the BBC Afghan Service and the Ministry of Education. This year, to improve the access to education for the Afghan youth the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State announced Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program.

The Ministry of Higher Education in Afghanistan is taking a proactive role in rebuilding the national higher education system. Kabul University opened its doors to students on a limited basis and the Minister of Higher Education is optimistic about the future of this sub-sector.

The above mentioned initiatives have been progressing slowly. The national government is planning to accommodate all school-age children and "reclaim the lost generation of students who were denied education during the war and Taliban rule." In his interview the Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Sharief Fayez, reported that within the next ten years he is expecting to have six high class higher learning institutions competing with other institutions in the region, and see more Afghans trained overseas coming back to the country to assist in national development.

Credits: This feature was prepared by Vlada Alekankina, Sana Haider, Leila Search-Zalmai and Ramin Aliyev
 
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