TIME FOR TRUTH
Friday, August 27, 2021
Fortitude we showed as we got into, got through, and got out of COVID-19’s grip is still required, as we move to what comes next, as shock-waves of economics and collateral damage done by politicians ~ we pay a collective price, a high one in terms of financial cost and higher still in terms of human costs.
By that, I don’t mean lives lost or lifespans shortened – but qualities of life missing in action.
Some see that as vacations missed, family time missed, of opportunities missed that will never come around again. Instead, different options arose and will again.
I’m talking about humanity – how we think of one another. Consider, for example, how we used to think of race, gender, nationality and religion. Think back to a reference point like September 11, 2001.
I had plans that day that never happened; plans for the next week too were scrapped and never got revisited.
And life got better, not worse.
Now think of how we think of third world countries, languages and religions we still don’t understand, and foreign country politics we cannot understand – some days we scarcely appreciate our own country and province.
In turn, those who lead us appear mesmerized by both truths and fictions, by polls and politics to the point we cannot accept any argument that they are in touch with real people here in Canada, in the U.S., in Europe …
For example, imagine yourself as a citizen of a 3rd world country – after being occupied by an invading power for twenty years – and if all that doesn’t make you cry with laughter, imagine the U.S. pulling out of your country – by this September 11th as they said. Then they said they’d leave sooner, by August 31st.
Then they say, “not so fast; we can’t get everyone out fast enough” … makes you wonder what it’s like to be a citizen of any country watching, or being a citizen of a country the U.S. is pulling out of, or one they never have, like Afghanistan, Iraq, Korea, Vietnam, Germany, Japan. Whether they pull out or stay, it’s hard to watch it all unfold and imagine they used to think they were the greatest country in the world. It’s enough to make you laugh and cry all the time uncontrollably.
At the root of all Afghanistan failures – Americans now, Russians before them, and many more before them, is that an occupying force of invaders must offer the people some win-win equation. Otherwise, it ends as it was prosecuted for twenty years, badly and painfully. It is sad, atop massive costs – are the lives lost, American lives, Canadian and other NATO soldiers’ lives, and Afghan live too. O horrible waste, an ugly ending to a dubious war/occupation.
P.S. to my American friends – while I remain repulsed by almost all things Trump-era-ish, I am amazed by Biden’s lack of sharpness lately. Your country is attached to our country, so we are by necessity joined at the hip. We don’t help each other as much as we could, and being allied is less comfortable than it used to be.