I’ve often wondered what the world and our country would be like today if we responded to the call for aide to Afghanistan when the Mujahideen expelled the Soviets, but were incapable of securing the peace, their government crumbled, clean water and food supplies dwindled and tribal leaders began their grab for power. 600,000 Afghani’s died in the conflict and at least another 100,000 on the way to Taliban rule. I won’t go into the numbers since the beginning of Taliban rule, but this reflection reminds me so often of the possibilities a better world. Could our Aide and assistance have possibly prevented Sept. 11th? Would the bunker of terrorism manifested in the mountain caves if things had been just a little different. Would the vile hate and destructive indifference have existed if our faces had been present in a country we unloaded truckload upon truckload of weapons if afterwards we remembered to unload truckload upon truckload of clean water or food or tools to restabalize government. Today, now, I’m asking some of these same questions with a different spin. What is going to happen with Somali Terrorists 10-20 years from now? Do the terrorists of Somalia who escape the conditions on the horn see how the Western World lives and what do they think of America? Are they educated, charismatic or determined enough to lead a fundamentalist movement against the “free world.” Will their people follow vilianous hate, or will there be a large enough and sophisticated enough cell of extremists to develops plots that blame the US and seek to exact revenge? Will the roots of our nation’s soil shake again with destruction like it did on September 11th, 2001? Will we know who did it, where they are hiding, and how to win a war that not only defeats terror, but rebuilds and tries to stabalize a nation far beyond the average conditions any of our people think is acceptable? Will we see sacrifice far exceeding the number of lives lost and dollars spent then we ever hoped we would have to lose or spend? So I wonder. Can the greatest nation on the face of this earth really ignore thousands upon millions of lives decending into chaos, scrambling for the slightest ounce of food, desperate for hydration and losing a whole generation of good fathers, mothers, and children: because it always seems like the best people with the kindest hearts are the true victims of such devastation? I don’t have the answers. I don’t think anyone on this earth does, but I know what my heart tells me. I know what I’ve seen, how I’ve been shaped and who I am. I can’t ignore it. I won’t ignore it. God has given all of us an infinite amount of opportunity to do good. It doesn’t start here or there. It is everywhere. It is my belief that when this nation turns it heart to the amazing potential of love that we are at our greatest. The help we send around the world inspires aide within our borders. The generosity of our spirit inspires generosity of policy. We recognize the interconnected relationships that bind us all not just to humanity and one another, but to God. That is the world I dream about, but my world disappears when I wake to the questions of the world I see. So when I wake tomorrow, I will have to ask myself, how can I make my dream a reality?
