PAID TO DIE
War note 1
**NOT A TOPIC FOR EVERYONE**
Every so often, the media publish the photos of army personnel who have died in Afghanistan. Invariably they are good-looking, intelligent, obviously well-intentioned people. We do not know them but their faces seem oddly familiar, part of our extended cultural family. And we can only imagine the sorrow and grief felt by their immediate families and loved ones.
It is an honourable death - one long deemed the ultimate sacrifice - yet I cannot help but feel that there is something terribly wrong with the whole set-up. A volunteer paid army, in the 21th century, should be something other than a war machine. Antiquity had mercenaries; we have peace-keeping forces. That these people should meet death as part of their work experience is an outrageous state of affairs yet there seems to be no going back on it. The powers that be praise Canada's contribution and things go on.
The events of 9/11 sent a real shock through American society and changed the fabric of daily life in New York, with many moving out of the city and seeking to work elsewhere. Thus a self-selection process set in as a result of these trying circumstances. One hears of false alerts suffered by George and Laura Bush, shuffled off the bunkers when there was in reality no need. Laura Bush - a handsome and intelligent woman - is, to my mind, a professional wife. She is a perfect first lady, rock solid, no- frills yet still feminine. It is stunningly obvious yet no one has commented on it - why say potentially hurtful things when there is no need to - yet this passage to image-driven reality does need to be looked at. We are sending handsome Canadians to Afghanistan and they are being killed: it is that kind of war.
Samuel Huntington of Harvard University shocked a number of intellectuals by his thesis that crisis in a planetary society would henceforth take the form of clashes of values between different civilizations, at least for a time. Your world-model or mine, on a take-no-prisoners note for both parties. And he proceeded to carve up the planet along religious and geographical lines. What the current stalemate between the developed and Islamic worlds is characterized by is a debate on legitimacy. President Bush - read our political institutions - officially 'speak' for us while voices form the Islamic world are the actions of each and everyone who wants to take a stance. Al-Qaida is an outlaw ripple in a salvageable situation, claims the U.S. It is a religious duty to combat imperialism, answers Ossama Ben Laden, a bit like a home-town preacher looking for contributions to the church renovation-fund. Contribute with your life.
I struggle with my daily existence - these days trying to learn computer programming - and come across the inspirational notion that follows as a text in one of my tutorials: "A war has no winners". Let us re-phrase that: "Everyone who goes to war creates tragedy". Young and healthy individuals are being made to die and it is tragic, illogical, unacceptable . That if nothing else should be common ground for all concerned.
The Clinton years of the American presidency were marked by scandal because it was something understandable. A young woman was hurt: everyone wanted more information on the psychological make-up of the perpetrator. Who was this fellow, the president. He bought poetry books - not so bad - yet he seemed incapable of commanding his instincts - not so good - and the American political system went into theater mode to look for meaning, to articulate something with a moral slant that would make going on and claiming world leadership credible.
And these days the Democratic party are holding the moral high ground, with an anti-war stance, all very much in the tradition of American politics. Maybe not everyone on the planet has a program for that performance.
Indeed the Lewinsky scandal might well be what is understandable in the Islamic world, if not the politics. What is Islam about, with it's ultimately stylized contention that women are so desirable that their very sight is an incitement to disorder. It is a request to keep desire pure, to ensure communication and trust between men and women through the possibility of relationship . We should be so lucky.
War note 1
**NOT A TOPIC FOR EVERYONE**
Every so often, the media publish the photos of army personnel who have died in Afghanistan. Invariably they are good-looking, intelligent, obviously well-intentioned people. We do not know them but their faces seem oddly familiar, part of our extended cultural family. And we can only imagine the sorrow and grief felt by their immediate families and loved ones.
It is an honourable death - one long deemed the ultimate sacrifice - yet I cannot help but feel that there is something terribly wrong with the whole set-up. A volunteer paid army, in the 21th century, should be something other than a war machine. Antiquity had mercenaries; we have peace-keeping forces. That these people should meet death as part of their work experience is an outrageous state of affairs yet there seems to be no going back on it. The powers that be praise Canada's contribution and things go on.
The events of 9/11 sent a real shock through American society and changed the fabric of daily life in New York, with many moving out of the city and seeking to work elsewhere. Thus a self-selection process set in as a result of these trying circumstances. One hears of false alerts suffered by George and Laura Bush, shuffled off the bunkers when there was in reality no need. Laura Bush - a handsome and intelligent woman - is, to my mind, a professional wife. She is a perfect first lady, rock solid, no- frills yet still feminine. It is stunningly obvious yet no one has commented on it - why say potentially hurtful things when there is no need to - yet this passage to image-driven reality does need to be looked at. We are sending handsome Canadians to Afghanistan and they are being killed: it is that kind of war.
Samuel Huntington of Harvard University shocked a number of intellectuals by his thesis that crisis in a planetary society would henceforth take the form of clashes of values between different civilizations, at least for a time. Your world-model or mine, on a take-no-prisoners note for both parties. And he proceeded to carve up the planet along religious and geographical lines. What the current stalemate between the developed and Islamic worlds is characterized by is a debate on legitimacy. President Bush - read our political institutions - officially 'speak' for us while voices form the Islamic world are the actions of each and everyone who wants to take a stance. Al-Qaida is an outlaw ripple in a salvageable situation, claims the U.S. It is a religious duty to combat imperialism, answers Ossama Ben Laden, a bit like a home-town preacher looking for contributions to the church renovation-fund. Contribute with your life.
I struggle with my daily existence - these days trying to learn computer programming - and come across the inspirational notion that follows as a text in one of my tutorials: "A war has no winners". Let us re-phrase that: "Everyone who goes to war creates tragedy". Young and healthy individuals are being made to die and it is tragic, illogical, unacceptable . That if nothing else should be common ground for all concerned.
The Clinton years of the American presidency were marked by scandal because it was something understandable. A young woman was hurt: everyone wanted more information on the psychological make-up of the perpetrator. Who was this fellow, the president. He bought poetry books - not so bad - yet he seemed incapable of commanding his instincts - not so good - and the American political system went into theater mode to look for meaning, to articulate something with a moral slant that would make going on and claiming world leadership credible.
And these days the Democratic party are holding the moral high ground, with an anti-war stance, all very much in the tradition of American politics. Maybe not everyone on the planet has a program for that performance.
Indeed the Lewinsky scandal might well be what is understandable in the Islamic world, if not the politics. What is Islam about, with it's ultimately stylized contention that women are so desirable that their very sight is an incitement to disorder. It is a request to keep desire pure, to ensure communication and trust between men and women through the possibility of relationship . We should be so lucky.
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