Real Security - Real Change

Harper’s idea of security is more jails, tougher sentences, more surveillance, more fighter jets and more assistance to warring parties. How did we get to a place in history where our security is an election issue? Where our leader sees a “terrorist” in every – almost ever crazy person who wields a gun? (“Almost” – a man who gunned down four policemen in New Brunswick was not considered a terrorist, perhaps because he was not Islamic.)

When the World Trade Towers went down on September 11^th, 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan – which had no responsibility for the attacks. (Osama Bin Ladin was rumoured to be hiding in Afghanistan.) Canadians went along. Hundreds of thousands of Afghanis lost their lives, faceless, nameless civilians from a culture steeped in “honour” with a justice defined by revenge. Hence one Canadian soldier commented, “you kill one Talaban and five take his place”.

Al Qaeda gains recruits big time.

Dissatisfied, the USA then leads the “coalition of the willing” into Iraq and decimates infrastructure – universities, museums, schools, roads, bridges, sewage and water systems. What is not to like? As atrocities like Abu Ghraib and the deaths of more than half a million children become public, radical Islam gains more recruits. (We were leaving Iraq when Abu Ghraib became public and experienced first hand the fury of native Iraqis.)

Then, in Libya the West actually armed the rebels – a ragtag badly organized bunch of hooligans. Whatever the goal in that invasion, weapons flowed south to assist radical fundamentalists in raping and kidnapping in Nigeria and overthrowing an elected government in Mali.

Most recently, in the Syria, the armaments sent to the oppose the Assad regime fueled the rise of ISIS. While the USA has armed the Kurdish guerrillas for years to operate in the mountains to de-stable Iran, it now is openly arming them against ISIS. (Ironically producing a situation that is the delight of weapons manufacturers! Western arms against Western arms.)

None of these acts of aggression against foreign countries are designed to win friends and influence progressive change. None of these behaviours are designed to make us more secure. They accomplish exact the opposite. Continuing in this manner will produce more angry disenfranchised people and an increasingly insecure world.

One definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result”. It is time to do something different. It is time to develop an international policy that makes friends, influences progressive change AND makes us more secure. To really get rid of an enemy, turn them into your friend.

How do we do that? First of all, get away from the warring bodies. Second, undermine the ability of ISIS and their ilk by going behind the lines and responding to the needs of the people. What do ordinary Syrians in refugee camps need? What do Iraqis need? Food, water and safety. Remember the nonsense of being in Afghanistan for women’s rights? Fund schools, fund teacher education, protect women with “safe houses” and education of both genders. What about Iraq in the South, now plagued with diseases and deformities believed to be the result of the wastes left behind by war? Support and fund medical research. The list could go on and on but all of these are much less expensive (and more environmentally friendly) than fighter jets and army personnel.

And far more likely to increase the security of Canadians.