TakingITGlobal - Panorama - The Pasture of...

Published on: Mar 27, 2002

Topic:

Type: Opinions

https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=273

I would like to be the first to welcome the “War on Terror” to the great pasture of America’s “wars.” Within five years, the “War on Terror” will have a small plot next to the “War on Poverty” and the “War on Drugs.” All of these great “wars” are fought against massive, decentralized, occasionally intangible, and certainly undefined enemies. Our “wars” started as noble efforts by one president and were dutifully passed on to the next commander-in-chief. Once more than a decade has past and a third president inherits the “war,” the American populace loses its original hawkish zeal and takes up some new cause. Nonetheless, it would be disrespectful, unpatriotic, and frankly unwise to pull the plug on any given “war.” So the “wars” continue.

The real tragedy here is that these “wars” cause us to overlook the cause of the problems themselves. President Bush only began pressing for a cease-fire in the Holy Land when U.S. inattention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict threatened to prevent Americans from having access to Arab bases for extension of the “War on Terror” to Iraq. Still, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the heart of many terrorist issues. Similarly, the U.S. has provided large sums of money to the Columbian government to fight drug traffickers, but the U.S. has not provided alternative livelihoods to those farmers for whom cocaine represents the only savior from poverty. Instead, we spray toxic chemicals on their farms and their futures.

We must accept that there will always be some poverty, some drug abusers, and some violent extremists. Accepting that fact, we must work to provide clear and tangible solutions to the causes of these “wars.” We must build roads for counties before we will be able to build inroads for our “wars.”

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by Whitney Haring-Smith
Published on: Mar 27, 2002
Topic:
Type: Opinions
https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=273


I would like to be the first to welcome the “War on Terror” to the great pasture of America’s “wars.” Within five years, the “War on Terror” will have a small plot next to the “War on Poverty” and the “War on Drugs.” All of these great “wars” are fought against massive, decentralized, occasionally intangible, and certainly undefined enemies. Our “wars” started as noble efforts by one president and were dutifully passed on to the next commander-in-chief. Once more than a decade has past and a third president inherits the “war,” the American populace loses its original hawkish zeal and takes up some new cause. Nonetheless, it would be disrespectful, unpatriotic, and frankly unwise to pull the plug on any given “war.” So the “wars” continue. The real tragedy here is that these “wars” cause us to overlook the cause of the problems themselves. President Bush only began pressing for a cease-fire in the Holy Land when U.S. inattention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict threatened to prevent Americans from having access to Arab bases for extension of the “War on Terror” to Iraq. Still, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the heart of many terrorist issues. Similarly, the U.S. has provided large sums of money to the Columbian government to fight drug traffickers, but the U.S. has not provided alternative livelihoods to those farmers for whom cocaine represents the only savior from poverty. Instead, we spray toxic chemicals on their farms and their futures. We must accept that there will always be some poverty, some drug abusers, and some violent extremists. Accepting that fact, we must work to provide clear and tangible solutions to the causes of these “wars.” We must build roads for counties before we will be able to build inroads for our “wars.” « return.