Afghanistan: Too Late to Play the Heroes
February 22, 2009 by Julia King · 6 Comments
I remember standing in my neighbor’s backyard one day many months after September eleven. He filled his bird feeder as we talked about the impending war. He supported invading Iraq. I did not. But we both agreed that attacking Afghanistan had been reasonable. This meant, of course, that I (a presumably loving person) had endorsed the killing and maiming of old women and children, of sinister Al Qaeda terrorists and innocents alike, anything to put the universe back in order. In 2001, such a plan seemed workable.
It’s 2009 and none of it seems workable anymore. By shifting away from Iraq and refocusing on Afghanistan, sending a new wave of troops to the region, President Barack Obama is attempting to do the impossible. He’s trying for a “do-over” of legendary proportions.
Had Obama been president in the wake of 9/11 (or Al Gore, a more likely scenario), things would be different. For one, the United States would not have carried out a preemptive war on Iraq, thus squandering world sympathy and the accompanying potential for global cooperation as we tried to find and capture Osama Bin Laden. Just as the Bush administration did, a Democratic administration would have likely invaded Afghanistan, but it would have done so with undivided military and intelligence resources.
Would a different war in Afghanistan have worked, one carried out with singular focus and in another political (and economic) climate? Would American forces have charged in and fixed the place right up, lassoing Osama Bin Laden and all the other bad guys? Knowing what we know now (and hearing from others who have fought for years in the country), it seems unlikely. But the effort would not have been entirely irrational.
It is Obama who insists we use common sense regarding Iraq and the Middle East, asking us to honestly evaluate the situation, including our relationships in that part of the world – relationships that have tremendous bearing on our ability to operate effectively in both Iraq and Afghanistan (and anywhere else we put up our dukes). Now he’s asking us to abandon that common sense, to believe something other than what he has often expressed, which is: “…that you cannot solve the problem of Afghanistan, the Taliban, the spread of extremism in that region solely through military means.” (Obama as quoted in a recent Time article by Mark Thompson.) Remove the word “solely,” and I agree with the president completely.
The difficulty here is that the Taliban (and Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and all the loosely affiliated yet slightly different extremist elements in the area) are unequivocally horrendous. They are so horrendous that on some days it feels like a stretch to even count them as part of humanity. So, what do we do? We wipe them out, of course, the best way we know how – with our unrivaled military might.
When I (and millions of other Americans) supported the initial Afghanistan invasion it was not only because the people who attacked the World Trade Center were so obviously deserving of punishment; and it was not only because we were raw with emotion. It was also because we believed the war could do some good. I imagined myself living under the rule of the Taliban and thought the invasion (in addition to capturing and punishing Bin Laden) could offer a better way of life to those monumentally unfortunate Afghanis caught in the clutches of Islamic extremists. But it turns out (surprise) that adding additional violence to an already turbulent mix does no one a favor. Civilian deaths in Afghanistan are soaring and trust in U.S. military personnel is plummeting. More Americans with guns will not improve those numbers. We have simply done too much in recent years to claim the moral high ground (Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay). Even Obama can’t undue the past, can’t right the wrongs of the Bush administration. We cannot begin again.
It is all too much. It’s too much for the American soldiers who leave their families and go half way around the world to discover the horror of killing fellow human beings. And for the families who bury their loved ones in flag-draped coffins. And especially for the men and women of Afghanistan whose homes are destroyed and whose lives are one wave of loss after another.
We should not give up the fight against Islamic extremists (or any other violent extremists, for that matter) – but we must change tactics. Meaning, it won’t be uniformed soldiers who make real progress against extremism. It will be people like Greg Mortenson (see Three Cups of Tea post), people brave enough to enter dangerous places without weapons and sincere enough to build relationships there. And (despite the awfulness of it) by others less gentle, by those who can trick and connive and speak the language and commit clandestine acts of violence to reduce the numbers of the ruthless and immovable (acts that mercifully leave no lifeless children behind).
Ultimately, however, the rate of progress is out of American hands. We can hold our own government to better standards of justice and compassion around the globe (and we must), but we can not quell Afghanistan violence. It is ordinary (and extraordinary) Afghanis who will have to do that, the friends and neighbors, brothers and sisters, the grandmothers of those who would systematically oppress or murder their fellow countrymen and women.
Indiana Poised to Shoot Self in Financial Foot (like California)
February 18, 2009 by Julia King · 2 Comments
I’m late to this issue, possibly because it involves numbers and formulas and financial language that make me want to run off and hide under an accountant’s desk. Or maybe it’s because of the words “Circuit Breaker,” which make me think of my furnace room and a colony of spiders. (No thanks. Someone else can tend to the Circuit Breaker!) Or maybe it’s because the idea of cutting (or capping) taxes and embedding the decision in the Indiana Constitution — even after California was kind enough to show us how the plan unfolds — seems so ludicrous that I’ve just been in denial.
Whatever the reason, up until now I have failed to focus on the fact that the Indiana General Assembly is moving rapidly toward passing legislation that will (as I mentioned) cap property taxes and carve those constraints into the state Constitution.
Are we to believe the legislature has discovered the perfect tax rate, a never-changing formula that makes sense every year, no matter the circumstances — come flood, or famine, or terrorist attack, or collapsing local industries?
Granted, things are not easy – especially here in Northern Indiana. Knowing that certain bills won’t rise could offer some measure of comfort; but the notion that my representatives are down in Indianapolis trying to help me by focusing on my property tax rate sort of makes me giggle (not really, but that sounds nicer).
My husband has run a successful business for thirteen years, a business with close ties to the construction industry. Needless to say, we are tightening our belts and holding our breath. What’s our biggest expense? Our health care premiums. We pay nearly ten thousand dollars a year just for the privilege of paying for all our medical expenses out-of-pocket. We have a catastrophic health plan and nothing more. Ten thousand dollars a year. Our property taxes? Roughly a thousand dollars a year.
This is not the year to squabble over a hundred dollars a month, much less to stamp it into the Constitution. This is the time for politicians to help shore up the safety nets and get ready to catch those of us who may fall.
Valentine’s Day, Parent-Style
February 13, 2009 by Julia King · 1 Comment
My daughter has recently started dating (except they don’t call it “dating” these days, even if it involves a time, a place, a car, meeting the parents, etc.). She’s too young, of course, and the guy is too old (and his car is a VAN, for God’s sake); but ready or not, the journey begins. So suddenly we are the MOM and DAD, my husband and I — the middle-aged, softening parents playing supporting roles to a daughter with curls that cascade down her back, an emerging leading lady. We linger in the doorway as she rides off, wondering if there are rules we should know, special formulas we should have studied before opening this particular chapter. We suspect we aren’t quite ready for the big test, whatever (and whenever) that might be.
“Oh my gosh,” she says. “We’re just hanging out. It’s no big deal.”
Silly parents.
Obama’s Town Hall Meeting
February 9, 2009 by Julia King · 1 Comment
I wasn’t there in person this time when President Obama came to town, but I was talking to a friend on her cell phone as she watched Air Force One land at the South Bend Regional Airport… AND I did get to watch on TV while a couple of my neighbors shook his hand. So, like millions of others, I heard the president’s words from the comfort of my living room instead of from the bleachers in the Concord High School gymnasium.
In short, Obama delivered. He used the office of the presidency to highlight our community as an example of a place that especially needs help, but also as an example of a place that needs to be willing to see this hardship as an opportunity. He reminded us all what this stimulus package is really about. It’s about moving forward with a new, greener and more socially equitable economy. He stressed the fact that when something is already in disrepair (like our local and national economy), that’s the best time to make important shifts, to rebuild better and smarter.
The roughly 22 percent of Americans who stood by George W. Bush until the end showed us that no matter what, some people will stand their ground. Let them stand. The rest of us better get moving…
Obama Puts Elkhart County in Economic Spotlight
February 8, 2009 by Julia King · 9 Comments
When President Barack Obama comes to Elkhart tomorrow (Monday, Feb. 9), he will presumably hear not only from the many average citizens who stood in line for hours to get tickets, but also from 3rd District Rep. (Republican) Mark Souder (my representative) and 2nd District Rep. (Democrat) Joe Donnelly (the neighboring district’s representative). The two northern Indiana lawmakers have joined forces to protect the flailing (failing) recreational vehicle industry, long a staple of the local economy.
As representatives of a hurting community, Donnelly and Souder are doing something right. They are trying to help their ailing constituents. So, too, is Obama – who recognized Elkhart County as a place that truly needs some tender loving care (also known as “jobs”).
I don’t yet know what Obama plans to say, but I hope it’s different from what Souder and Donnelly are saying. Our northern Indiana guys are looking to boost demand for RVs by requesting that Troubled Assets Relief Program (or TARP) funds be available for loans for RVs (these are funds that were initially established for the housing crisis).
Am I a spoilsport if I say I’m less-than-inspired? Getting people to buy recreational vehicles with stimulus money seems about as creative and forward-thinking as investing in home coal chutes. Maybe there’s more to the plan, but if there is, the details aren’t easy to come by.
Once upon a time a recreational vehicle was a brilliant idea (For real. It was.). But that was before we knew about global warming and before we sampled life with gas prices approaching $5 a gallon. Even if an RV niche can survive, it will have to be much (MUCH) smaller, meaning it cannot be expected to anchor our local economy.
Now, it would be different if Donnelly and Souder were pushing for a complete overhaul of the industry, looking to run RVs on vegetable oil, or hydrogen, or outfit every new RV with solar panels or portable windmills (Okay, I don’t know what I’m talking about here. I’m just throwing ideas out; you get the general picture.). But they aren’t. They’re thinking small when it’s time to think big.
The point is that the stimulus money should be used for the future good of our community – and the country as a whole. As sad and frustrating and scary as it is, not every industry will make it to the other side of this economic crisis. And not every industry should.
Northern Indiana desperately needs jobs, jobs that support families and send kids to college — and jobs that tread lightly on our water and our air and our land. The RV industry is not necessarily that industry. It might be, with massive adjustments. But it might not be.
So, when Obama is here, I hope he listens carefully. I hope he hears all the voices and all the possibilities that exist here. And most important, I hope he brings with him fresh ideas for our hurting home. We want to work. We want to grow. But to do that we need an economy that will survive for the long haul, not one that will limp along temporarily before finally tripping over itself and landing on its face.
Obama to Visit Elkhart (Indiana) Monday, Feb. 9 (woo-hoo!)
February 6, 2009 by Julia King · 2 Comments
Here’s confirmation from a local television station.
MORE LATER
Stimulus Stimulates the Same Old Differences
February 6, 2009 by Julia King · 1 Comment
Despite Rush Limbaugh’s infamous “satirical” anthem about Barack Obama, our president is not actually magic. If he were magic, he would have produced at least a couple of Republican House votes for the stimulus package to properly showcase our new nonpartisan, presumably united America.
Maybe in time we will get there, to this place so many people talk about – where political affiliation doesn’t matter… but I’m not about to go on a hunger strike until we arrive. Unlike many of the other conditions we live with, political affiliation is not an accident of birth (although there is some research suggesting brain differences between conservatives and liberals). But until science proves otherwise, we’ll operate on the assumption that Republicans choose to be Republicans; Democrats choose to be Democrats; Greens choose to be Greens, and so forth.
Although it sometimes feels like it, Democrats and Republicans don’t vote against each other’s ideas just to be contrary; they genuinely disagree. On almost everything. There are occasional areas of public policy where they can work together, but mostly it’s rough. Even when the parties share the same goals (and that happens quite a bit), they rarely agree on how to reach those goals. What’s the best way to demonstrate respect for life? How do we cut down on drug use? How do we fight terrorism? How do we improve education? How do we support families? How do we fix the economy? Our questions are the same, but our answers are almost always different.
To those who are either surprised or disappointed that the stimulus package isn’t wearing a hoop skirt and waltzing gaily through the halls of Congress with Republicans and Democrats taking turns cutting in: take heart. It’s okay. This is the way it has to be. The two main political parties exist to promote very different versions of society; they are bound to be in conflict.
