Dealing with Extremists – Education Trumps Bombs
It was at one of the many endless debates last summer that Barack Obama was asked about meeting with the leaders of foreign countries, including those dubbed the axis of evil by the current Bush administration. Obama barely paused before responding that he would consider sitting down, face-to-face, with the leaders of all nations.
The comment was deemed a mistake by many. Beginning with his Democratic counterpart, Hillary Clinton, Obama was roundly criticized. Republican nominee John McCain, calling the comment naive and reckless, has gone on to make the remark a cornerstone of his campaign.
Those who see Obama’s answer as naive and echo a continued hard-line sentiment would do well to review the story of Greg Mortenson, author of the book “Three Cups of Tea.” The former mountain climber is having a profound impact on both Afghanistan and Pakistan, doing so with an approach that demonstrates that things can be accomplished with tactics other than the hawkish, uncompromising method espoused by the Bush administration.
Education, Not Bombs
Greg Mortenson, dubbed Dr. Greg in Pakistan, has made an amazing transition of self-sacrifice, one that has him helping the Afghans and Pakistanis build schools in some of the most remote areas of the two countries. Considering the anti-American sentiment in the region, Mortenson’s tale is an incredible one.
A critical component to the story is the help Mortenson received after a failed attempt in 1993 to climb K2, a Himalayan peak. Mortenson, reportedly stumbled into a poor Muslim village where he was nursed back to health. The enormous kindness of strangers led the mountain climber to promise he would repay villagers by building a school.
Selling his climbing equipment and his car to help fund the endeavor, Mortenson repaid his debt with some financial support from Tom Brokaw. However, once the first school was complete, Mortenson continued on. To date he has now helped build 74 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Local villagers provide the land and help construct the school to create a local component, but Mortenson is clearly the driving force behind the ongoing efforts. The buy-in locally has been critical; at this point despite the anti-American viewpoint in the region, his schools have been left alone by extremists.
Such schools offer hope that an educated population could eventually lead to a reduction in the level of extremism in that part of the world. A key component to creating additional hope down the road is the fact that Mortenson’s focus is on educating girls. The ultimate belief being that these young women will one day be mothers with enormous power to impact the thinking of their sons.
Opposite Approach
Mortenson’s story also contrasts with the current policy in Washington, one that seeks to use force and intimidation to bring about change in the region. On his blog site On the Ground, Nicholas D. Kristof, a New York Times correspondent notes the work of Mortenson. “He makes a fine counterpoint to American policy in Pakistan, which has been to shower billions of dollars worth of military aid on President Musharraf, without doing much to support education. Supporting Musharraf and bribing him (in effect) to seek a military solution in the Tribal Areas has been a failure.”
Kristof goes on to note that “the Tribal Areas are more radicalized than ever, anti-American sentiment has grown throughout Pakistan, and the militants are now threatening Peshawar.”
In an op-ed piece for the Times, Kristof writes of the difference between the Bush doctrine and that of the former mountain climber: “The only thing that Mr. Mortenson blows up are boulders that fall onto remote roads and block access to his schools.”
Kirstof notes that Mortenson has had setbacks “including being kidnapped for eight days in Pakistan’s wild Waziristan region.” Still, the former Montana resident plugs along, offering the following simple philosophy:
Schools are a much more effective bang for the buck than missiles or chasing some Taliban around the country.”
Using the costs for a Tomahawk missile to reiterate Mortenson’s viewpoint, Kristof explains the worthiness of that philosophy, noting that at least 20 schools can be built for the money spent on a single launched Tomahawk. Kristof also goes on to point out the sentiments of at least one Pentagon official, Lt. Col. Christopher Kolenda, who works on the Afghan front lines.
“The conflict here will not be won with bombs but with books. … The thirst for education here is palpable.”
Respect for Something Other than a Hard Line Approach
In completing his viewpoint on the work of Mortenson, Kristof concludes his op ed piece:
“Military force is essential in Afghanistan to combat the Taliban. But over time, in Pakistan and Afghanistan alike, the best tonic against militant fundamentalism will be education and economic opportunity.
“So a lone Montanan staying at the cheapest guest houses has done more to advance U.S. interests in the region than the entire military and foreign policy apparatus of the Bush administration.”
While many conservatives would most likely disagree with the depth of that sentiment, none would dare indicate that Mortenson’s work is without impact. For those who see humanitarian efforts as key, it also brings new meaning to Obama’s pledge to at least meet with our enemies.
When it comes to bang for the buck, there are likely other steps we can consider to help reduce the extreme, anti-American mindset prevalent in these countries.
8 comments
Great post. I hope our next president will think outside the box for solutions such as this to international issues. I think Obama is our best hope for this sort of action.
A high minded approach and certainly PART of the solution. However it ignores two issues.
First that military force is required to establish conditions under which such schools would be allowed to operate. Otherwise the schools would be burnt and the students and teachers harassed or killed.
Second, such schools work by eroding away the much of the existing culture and substituting our own culture. Open the big question of “providing opportunity or violating rights to be distinct and different.”
Thus in the long run this is not quite as high minded as it first sounds. Nor is it effective as advertised. Plenty of educated people still cling to extreme religious ideas or cultural hyper-sensitivity both here and abroad. But this idea is required to reduce cultural friction.
Also there is a certain naivety in assuming that terrorism stems from the male Islamic parent and can be quenched by an assertive educated female parent alone. If it is truly a old fashion extremist Islamic household, the male children are removed from the female’s influence as quickly as possible around age 5-6. This is done precisely for aborting such mother influence later in life and to avoid a mother’s tolerance for substandard religious behavior (e.g. being gay or a liar or a thief).
So instead this program ought to say it is focusing on broadening the world awareness and tolerance of the stay at home parent…exactly as similar programs in industrial nations try to reduce gang behavior through improvement of non-working mothers.
Finally there is the point that several highly educated Islamic females are high on the terrorism watch lists and that in general female suicide bombers are the rise. The backside of this education program is that if the person in question retains a belligerent sense of cultural identity — you likely just made them a much more effective terrorist.
However, this education program is most important for its high profile symbol of offering an olive branch and for its offering third world citizens insights into why western cultures think as they do.
Where is the documentation that educated Pakastani women are on a terrorist list?
I’ve heard that women’s schools have been burned in the past month. Are they Mortenson’s schools? More info, please?
Till the time no any school made by Greg Mortenson has burned becouse these Schools are made with the communuties own partispation. Mostly these Shools has comucity Education Commities who are responcible to run and protect. that is why sofar No any School of CAI has demaged or clossed.
“Well, Duh” sounds like a person with no faith in the power of anything. He should ask his mother what she thinks of keeping the female gender “uneducated and pregnant.” I submit that this person knows nothing about which he speaks.
@WellDuh: Try reading the book. Your concerns are addressed and put to rest.
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