I recently had a long conversation with an unenlightened American colleague of mine about the war on terrorism. "Just kill them all," he said. "These people do not know the value of life." He used the word "people" generously- I'm pretty sure he wanted to use a more sub-humane term.
Why is it so hard for people to understand that by killing more and more, we simply create more enemies and more terrorists, not less? While I understand there are a number of un-reconcilable elements in the world that have to be dealt with militarily, the vast majority really just want to live a normal life and stop fighting. This is especially true in Afghanistan, where many having experienced 30 years of war already.
We should be supporting efforts such as the Afghanistan National Independent Peace and Reconciliation Commission - http://www.pts.af. Reconciliation instead of fighting, don't you think?
Hi Andrew,
I couldn't agree with your note more! What generally happens is, a group feels threatened or attacked, but they cannot strike back exactly at the attacker, their retaliation sloppily hitting the wrong people, who then feel unfairly attacked and seek their own justice.
War is not a story of two peoples at odds with each other as much as it is a spiral of displaced retaliation which continually loops in new people who otherwise had nothing to do with the original conflict. They are simply caught in the crossfire until someone else's punishment arrives at their doorstep.
Yes, let us support this reconciliation effort. Ideally, it would help to restore and repair the traditional tribal dispute resolution system between the local shuras/majlis/jirgas while at the same time including women in the planning, decision-making, and negotiations. Right?
- Peace, Joe