Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

I watched this show on the Discovery-Times Channel this afternoon. Interesting. It was one where I could hear the anti-war crowd screaming in my head, “See! They would leave us alone if we left them alone!”

Really, it showed very clearly why we have to continue this fight, although the producer did a good job of not drawing any conclusions for his viewers.

The scene is Pakistan, and the protagonists are two young boys. One is an Afghan refugee whose family fled during the invasion because they were Taliban supporters. Some of the things the boy said made it very clear why they hate us. “They were killing Muslims!” “They wouldn’t even give us bread!” “I will go back and fight as soon as I am old enough!”

His hatred is extremely localized. Muslims were being killed. No logic involved here. Those same Muslims had been killing other Muslims for years. Yet I’m sure these are words he has heard from his father over and over. How can anyone believe he or others like him can be reasoned with?

The second boy is a student at a madrassa. He is taken to a swimming pool area and is aghast that there are both males and females cooling off in the same place. “They will all go to Hell.” Then he thinks about it and says, “I will probably go to Hell because I saw them there.”

Education is the only thing that will bring these people out of that mentality. But education cannot take hold or become universal until these attitudes are changed. Catch-22. And it will take more than a couple of years. It will take a couple of generations. We in the US have little patience. We want things to change immediately so we no longer have to think about them. We want to see the results, and see them now.

The recent election in Afghanistan means little to many here. Big deal–we have elections all the time. An election in Iraq next month will mean even less to those folks. It is just another sham perpetrated by the Bush Administration.

Little steps. Little steps. We must be content with little steps, because that is what it will take to change the anachronism that is the Middle East. I wish it could move faster myself, but I understand how easy it is for a culture that has something novel thrust upon it to revert. The NGOs have shown quite clearly that building a well means only that some will use it, and none will care for it unless the use of that well becomes a habit for the locals. It soon falls into disrepair. So it is with democracy. Too many nations in history have had representative government only to discard it in favor of a strongman as something “easier” to do. France went through that several times after the Revolution. The US is the exception.

Back in July, Dean Esmay asked if Conservatives would honor and support Kerry if he were to be elected:

Now here is my interesting question: I’ve made myself some friends among conservatives by speaking this way. But I do find myself wondering: how many of you on the right will embrace such a philosophy if John Kerry should carry the election in November?

I responded:

That unity of purpose is what we saw in the one or two days after 9/11, which dissolved quickly once people saw Dubya was looking too good to suit them. We cannot survive in this world operating that way. As long as Kerry, if elected, acts like a President I will support him as one. Too bad Dubya wasn’t given that opportunity.

If we are to make things better for all the groups in the Middle East that the activists constantly cry for, we must present to the world a unified vision. The election campaign is over. Can those groups now live up to the same pledge I made last summer?