Friday, April 23, 2004
So What's the Answer?:
Don't know! Many of the conflicts the Americans have tried to resolve over the last 50 years are very complex. Such is the case in Afghanistan. Tribal conflict has been going on there for many hundreds of years. This conflict has evolved into what it is today gradually over all that time. The situation over all the Middle East is the same. This makes the situation so complex that it is very difficult to accurately predict what the result of any action is going to be. In most cases of intervention in the world the rescuing country goes charging in guns blazing to overthrow the current regime. Once the new "democratic" government is in place, it is expected that everything will be fine. This has most often proven not to be the case. If real change is going to happen, it must evolve in the same manner as the conflict. An example of this in the U.S. is slavery. A major war was fought over it with the result being that the practice was outlawed. However Black Americans continued to be discriminated against well into the 20th Century and in fact continue to be discriminated against albeit generally in a more subtle fashion. The progress that has been made is the result of a long period of education which resulted in a gradual changing of attitudes. Combine this with the efforts of great men like Martin Luther King and America has become a much better place for Black Men. This lesson must be extended to all conflict if a true solution is to be found. Any outside action in an attempt to "help" the less fortunate must first be done through education and understanding and last, if ever, with the stormtroopers. We must learn to recognize that these types of problems often take generations to fix. If we continue to tale the kind of measures the Americans are taking the problem only becomes more complex, and in fact often completely destabilizes the entire region.
Don't know! Many of the conflicts the Americans have tried to resolve over the last 50 years are very complex. Such is the case in Afghanistan. Tribal conflict has been going on there for many hundreds of years. This conflict has evolved into what it is today gradually over all that time. The situation over all the Middle East is the same. This makes the situation so complex that it is very difficult to accurately predict what the result of any action is going to be. In most cases of intervention in the world the rescuing country goes charging in guns blazing to overthrow the current regime. Once the new "democratic" government is in place, it is expected that everything will be fine. This has most often proven not to be the case. If real change is going to happen, it must evolve in the same manner as the conflict. An example of this in the U.S. is slavery. A major war was fought over it with the result being that the practice was outlawed. However Black Americans continued to be discriminated against well into the 20th Century and in fact continue to be discriminated against albeit generally in a more subtle fashion. The progress that has been made is the result of a long period of education which resulted in a gradual changing of attitudes. Combine this with the efforts of great men like Martin Luther King and America has become a much better place for Black Men. This lesson must be extended to all conflict if a true solution is to be found. Any outside action in an attempt to "help" the less fortunate must first be done through education and understanding and last, if ever, with the stormtroopers. We must learn to recognize that these types of problems often take generations to fix. If we continue to tale the kind of measures the Americans are taking the problem only becomes more complex, and in fact often completely destabilizes the entire region.
# posted by Wil Smith : 7:01 a.m.
