This Invisible Children thing? I just don't know where my mind and allegiance rests right now. It seemed to be hitting the nail on the head regarding the terrible child-soldier situation in Uganda and exposed a bad guy named Kony. But it has turned out that Kony is no longer a viable force, and in fact, he's no longer leading any military gang and the Invisible Children's fundraising methods and profit retention practices were being questioned. Then their leader went a little crazy himself on the weekend, so I began to question the entire validity of this one of many YouTube entries into the news/social activism world. Who vetted this stuff? Apparently it was a well done video, but a good video does not necessarily make a good cause.
So social activists, you can go looking for a guy named Kony ... or not. Or you can switch your attention and allegiances to Somalia, Nigeria, Congo, Sudan, Kenya or Haiti. What the heck, there are lots of causes with lots of credible do-gooders who can be supported. Me? I need to know more about Invisible Children and their own stability before I join this bandwagon to fight fright.
Speaking of missions in other lands ... don't you think it's time for the Americans to join us in making a substantial reduction and then final retreat from Afghanistan? It's been 11 years and the objectives have been met. The Taliban have been reduced in power and yes, they will probably resurface with some strength once we all leave, but it's not like we've left the Afghan people without alternatives. We've introduced them to democracy. We can't help it if they keep insisting on putting Karzai in charge. As the old Rolling Stones song goes, "you can't always get what you want."
Afghanistan relies on tribal affiliations and loyalties. They don't totally understand democracy and their level of education is so miniscule, it's difficult to teach them the alternatives.
The Americans got rid of bin Laden and reduced the Taliban strength, as did the Canadians. Our Canadian military and support staff certainly took giant steps in communicating and helping restore and create new infrastructure and education in that country. It's now time for all to move on.
What makes me convinced of that?
Well, since we left, what have we seen?
Pictures of United States troops urinating on dead Taliban bodies. Not a great confidence and democracy building move.
The so-called accidental burning of a stack of Korans, the Holy book for this population, by the American military. Again, not great optics. It led to reprisal deaths. That's never a good thing for either side.
Then we had that poor American soldier go off the deep end and head out on a killing rampage that only concluded after he had murdered 16 Afghan villagers, including nine children. They were killed in villages that had been solidified earlier as safe havens for their residents by Canadian troops. So much for that good will.
Yep, I think it's time for our U.S. neighbours to pull out of Afghanistan. They don't need to be there any more, and their military doesn't want to be there, and quite frankly, looking at it even more realistically, they really can't afford to be there anymore. And as a public relations exercise, it's been a nightmare.
There has been nothing dignified in these clean-up operations from a military, political, socio-democratic or economic perspective.
We would like to say a quick, clean exit is the best thing right now, but it has already been much too dirty.
