Two of the most prominent buildings in America’s most prominent city go down. Sounds like a nightmare that belongs only in Tom Clancy’s novels. After the event many were angry, many were thoughtful, but most of all there was a sense “what now? ” The Defense Secretary was implying war, President Bush strongly stated he felt that this was a “war for freedom. ” But then people were wondering, what would war bring? And who exactly was it against? What would be the solution that would bring about long term world peace and security?
War, well, what is war? a state of hostility, conflict, or antagonism, but it is more than that, it is pain, opelessness, hunger, anger, hate. What is the difference between an Afghan mother with a picture of her son who died and a mother in New York holding up a picture of her son? Afghanistan is a country which is in a situation that already looks like a post war wreck. Their government, the Taliban, is a dictatorship -a form of government in absolute power is concentrated in a dictator or a small clique.
This that the people have no voice. So if we are going to wage a war for freedom, we must not discriminate by citizenship we must fight for all those who do not have it in Afghanistan as well. How can we fight such a complicated war? There are many actions we could take and all of which have positive and negative repercussions, but if you look at the ultimate goal the choices are limited to what we can do. First, we must define our enemy, who or what it is. Is it the Taliban?
Or is it also poverty, economic vulnerability, and territorial conflict? (Poverty, economic vulnerability, and territorial conflict are linked. It all comes back to the fact to governmental instability, which allows someone like Taliban to come in a take over. Why is there governmental instability? ) Next we must define our allies. By the definition of our war, it is every single human being who supports the fundamental idea of freedom-liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another.
That would include most of the people who live in Afghanistan. When we start establishing economic roots, we will make it possible for the people to feel like they are starting to live instead of exist. This always brings about peaceful feelings. That is where the real war must be waged. The war for freedom: freedom from poverty, freedom to earn money to feed your family in a legal and ethical way is. We must work n uprooting the Taliban from the inside, while eradicating their official leaders.
The Taliban did not provide their country with any kind of prosperity. No matter what your patriotism, if your children are dying for nothing, if your house is burned down because you mourn with those that lost loved ones in the New York tragedy, you are not going to be loyal to that government if given a choice. A war for freedom: freedom from control or domination of another. We must cooperate with others countries because we cannot do it alone. All the countries who declared their alliance must be taken on their word and put to work.
There are countries who are closer to Afghanistan both in culture and geographically can help other countries understand how to help their economic problem in the most effective way, how to get the country to join the mainstream flow of information. Part of the problem in Afghanistan is that they don’t even know what life really looks like outside of their home. They are taught all their life that the way they live is the best way. They must be able to see how life really is and then they can make statements that the Taliban is the best government or not. A war for freedom: freedom from isolation.
Why should we extend our hand to the Afghan people? Because if we consider ourselves the “leader of the world for freedom,” then we must carry out that idealism into real solutions when that idealism is tested. Why should we not go into a full scale war? For our children who will eventually have to deal with the middle east and repair the anger, resentment, and pain which we will create. Let us not make the same mistake that we made in WWI with Germany, WWII followed because of the oppression and anger that was harnessed by Hitler. How, if people are truly content, will they be willing to assist the Taliban in creating more pain?