The recent politicization of the death of two young boys escaping
a civil war has been a low point in Canadian politics; I’m unsure who
introduced these boys misfortune into the mix first; they should be ashamed of
themselves. Given that the Conservatives had nothing to gain from the
assertions that Canada is AWOL on the refugee front, one can deduct then it was
someone else.
Now that refugees are front and center on the campaign
trail the topic is at hand and it presents an opportunity to point out where
refugees come from. We have refugees because we have conflict and disruption,
we have conflict because the world community has failed to manage the region
effectively. Please look at the history of the Middle East and you will make
the following observation, the pain incurred there by these people is a product
of incomplete effort on the part of intervening nations in our contemporary
reality and the fracturing of regional order as a result of European management
post Ottoman Empire.
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Russia attacked Afghanistan so they could have a fossil
fuel transportation corridor to the lucrative Pakistani and Indian markets; the
United States intervened by supporting Afghani warriors “freedom fighters” as
they were called and they drove the Russians out, this gave birth to the
Taliban. The Taliban gave refuge to Osama
bin Laden and a stronghold for al-Qaeda in the Pashtun region of the country. It
then became necessary to bomb the al-Qaeda stronghold and invade the country.
It is important to note that many in the United States governing body wanted to
take a stronger presence in Afghanistan post the Russian occupation, had they
done so the Afghanistan story would be much different – because of passive
foreign policy however, in excess of a decade of war and hardship ensued. Even
now, having been through the cycle before and post a trillion dollar military
adventure, we (the west) are poised to make the same error in Afghanistan. We
need to focus on effectiveness in the Middle East, on outcomes there and stop
letting western election cycles and the whimsy of the populous politics
determine our course.
Having seen this same process unfold several times elsewhere, we had to once again repeat history in Iraq. The Coalition took Iraq handily militarily speaking and then invested trillions of dollars, thousands of lives, millions of civilians killed, injured and displaced to win the peace, to effect a secure living circumstance for the country. This was a herculean undertaking with an unspeakable human toll, only to walk away to let the cycle unfold again, in was popular to take US troops out of Iraq – it was just stupid in the extreme. Granted there are other causal elements at play in the rise of ISIS, the “desert spring” and the collapse of several national orders in quick succession has played a role as well, the point is that had the US maintained military presence, there would be remaining a point where order exists. The two little boys who drowned were Kurds, “Kurdistan” or the Kurdish region of Iraq was beginning to prosper before the war do a degree and then gained momentum as the new order in Iraq took form; most of Kurd’s progress took place with just western air support. Had we (the west) exercised our obligation to protect, had we stayed the course, those two little boys would have opportunity to be living in a stable and prosperous place.
Having seen this same process unfold several times elsewhere, we had to once again repeat history in Iraq. The Coalition took Iraq handily militarily speaking and then invested trillions of dollars, thousands of lives, millions of civilians killed, injured and displaced to win the peace, to effect a secure living circumstance for the country. This was a herculean undertaking with an unspeakable human toll, only to walk away to let the cycle unfold again, in was popular to take US troops out of Iraq – it was just stupid in the extreme. Granted there are other causal elements at play in the rise of ISIS, the “desert spring” and the collapse of several national orders in quick succession has played a role as well, the point is that had the US maintained military presence, there would be remaining a point where order exists. The two little boys who drowned were Kurds, “Kurdistan” or the Kurdish region of Iraq was beginning to prosper before the war do a degree and then gained momentum as the new order in Iraq took form; most of Kurd’s progress took place with just western air support. Had we (the west) exercised our obligation to protect, had we stayed the course, those two little boys would have opportunity to be living in a stable and prosperous place.
The generous country of Canada
never killed those boys; a dismal circumstance and extended western neglect did.
Click the Links below for more thinking on the subject
1 comment:
Saudi Arabia has billions of dollars and as far as I know is doing nothing to help these refugees, likewise the rich countries of Qatar, Dubai, etc. Why is this the European's burden? When the US went into Iraq, it was blamed for the results, now it does not intervene in Syria, it is blamed for the results. It's a catch 22. Syria was a modern state before this civil war, now it's a smoking mess in a proxy war between Iran and the Saudis that's given us ISIS as a bad side effect.
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