When this war thing is over

- by Steve Hopkins

When this war thing is over, what then all knowing hind site type people?

Shall we leave the poorest nation in the world to it’s own devices?

Should we just pour more of that good old foreign aid into another rotten situation?

I find it amazing that already people are complaining that there might be a pipeline built. Oh my god….not that! LOL

Why would anyone begrudge the building of a pipeline in a country where it would mean training for occupations other than war. Where there would be prosperity gained by it’s construction and maintenance. In a country without any real economy, where any job is better than what is going on right now. Why would anyone begrudge that maybe someone could actually give these people a sense of dignity and hope by providing jobs and a better way of earning a living.

Oh that’s right…someone might expect to make a profit from it. Oh yeah and I forgot, you might even get to drive your gas guzzling car another couple of years. Oh yeah, and all that oil might provide transportation for the food you so righteously drive on down to the supermarket for.

I submit that if that pipeline does get built it will only serve to improve the lot of the Afghanis. And it most certainly will keep your existence running as is for awhile longer.

I read in Cari’s piece all sorts of worries about all sorts of African problems. Because they are there I guess somehow we’re expected to make them our problems, too. When you read all the complaints being issued here about how things get handled I find it amazing that anyone would issue a statement that says we should somehow get more involved with any of these countries. Why is it a bad thing that the good people of these African countries condemn terrorism? Because we want them to stand up and be counted if they expect us to help them? How ludicrous.

Here’s a good simple example: I stop to help you change a flat tire. You call me nasty names and throw rocks at me from the moment I get out of my car to help.

Do I (a) continue to help? or

(b) get back in my car and leave you in my dust? If you want my help you’d better at least play along. I would hope that you understand that we’re tossing billions of dollars at these countries and their economies couldn’t stand the strain if we backed out. So why shouldn’t we expect their support in a moral issue such as this. Can anyone think of a good reason? If so maybe we shouldn’t be supporting countries with moral standards that don’t at least pretend to be up to ours. And Cari is right that these governments change regularly. So maybe it would behoove us to periodically retract our foreign aid based on current sitting governments policies regarding human rights and such. I don’t think we do this nearly enough. And out of the thirty some million cases of AIDS in the world twenty million are in Africa. What’s wrong with that picture? And tribal wars in Africa are not terrorist borne. They are all out wars. The million people killed in Rwanda were no different from the people in Serbia and Bosnia and those were not terrorist wars. They were what is commonly called civil wars. We had one, remember? We don’t and wouldn’t consider them terrorists as there motives and methods are much different than terrorists. We can decide if there were events such as genocide and other war crimes that should be prosecuted. We can’t prevent or get involved with every squabble in the world. We can’t cure twenty millions cases of AIDS. We can’t feed all the hungry in the world. We can’t house all the homeless.

Speaking of helping, Jerre suggests that somehow we’re to blame for the starvation that will now surely kill many Afghanis. I’m sure he realizes that the shipments of aid have been stopped because the idiots with the guns are killing the foreign aid workers and stealing the food, supplies and the trucks they’re driving. Jerre also implies that the government now is the same as it was before the Taliban took over. Regardless of whether this is true or not it will still be better than the idiots who were running the show before. Obviously he is not seeing the truth coming out of Afghanistan. Already the schools are open again and full of girls. He speaks of brainwashed soldiers. LOL What a joke. It’s all they know and yet you would belittle any effort to change their way of life. Make up my mind, PLEASE! Soldiers die in war, Jerre. Plain and simple. And it’s just too damned bad if you pick a fight and get your nose bloodied because you picked on some a lot bigger than you.

Pakistan and India have actually always been near war and even more recently been actively fighting over Kashmir for several years so I guess that doesn’t wash with your statements.

We have always had military tribunals as a part of our armed forces justice system. The only difference is that foreign nationals actively using terrorism as a means of warfare will be tried that way. So what! Someone’s gotta do it and it certainly saves on time and money.

To imply that maybe Greenpeace might be implicated in terrorism regardless of it’s current methods is ludicrous and sensationalism. You’d make a great 5 o’clock news guy, Jerre.

As far as the military costs eliminating hunger, it might. But we didn’t ask old Bin Ladin to do as he did. So some of our foreign aid is now being diverted to defend our own country because that idiot decided he was the “most right”. Put the blame where it belongs, Jerre. Square on his shoulders and on the Taliban for not turning him over. If they couldn’t see what justice had to be done, then it’s too bad. They decided that many lives would be lost to protect their precious leader. Oh well.

But I think you’re right, Jerre. We should stay out of all those countries. Leave them all to do as they wish. I feel certain they’d all be better off. I say watch em and keep at arms length. We can do without fresh bananas and coffee and oil. And they can watch their crops rot on the vine without buyers. We’ll have alternative forms of energy in a year or less if the oil dries up and the entrepreneurial spirit in America will make up the food and product loss in very short order. Oh we’ll suffer for awhile but not as bad as the countries that rely on our purchasing power and money. And eventually they’ll all be back at the door asking how they can make things right an be back to business as usual.

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