Cablegate: Media Reaction Rio de Janeiro: War and Peace--A Time For
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SUBJECT: Media Reaction Rio de Janeiro: War and Peace--A Time for
Soldiers or Teachers?
War and Peace
A Time for soldiers or teachers?
Rio-based center-left daily Jornal do Brasil writes: "President
Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000 additional soldiers to the
war in Afghanistan is still echoing. There are those who criticize
this militaristic option, cautioning that many weapons do not
necessarily bring about a long-lasting peace (...)The discussion
relating to Afghanistan, at least recently, is relatively
superficial. And it needs to be deepened to include a historical
perspective (...) Shortly after his inauguration, Barack Obama
announced with pomp and circumstance an investment of USD 200
million in schools to be built with American help along the porous
and hostile frontier with Pakistan, a region where feelings of
goodwill toward fundamentalist Taliban thrive and [a region]
responsible for the training of important cells in Osama Bin
Laden's Al Qaeda network. Looking at this argument from a distance,
one may believe that it is a good and well-intended measure(...)The
difficulty seems to be the very essence of the U.N.'s role (...)
Since the fall of the Taliban in 2003, there is an insistence on
solidifying the model of participatory democracy [in the country]
with a parliament, something that is difficult to do in a country
with such deeply-rooted tribal divisions. Those who live in Kabul
may have even started to believe that voting in the Loya Jyrga (the
assembly) is the best way to build a future. But the man that leads
his goats through the mountains like his father and all his
ancestors has a different view of the world. The West needs to
understand it too if it wants there to be some permanent peace in
the region." (Sunday, Dec 6, page A8)
HEARNE