Guns shooting, tanks rolling, bombs falling, people dying—the Middle East is still the setting for endless wars–for how long has it been? for many many years.

Iraq, the Kurds, and the American allies have been fighting the ISIS for years.  Now that the ISIS has fled for the moment, Iraq is fighting the Kurds.

Everyday when we watch television, we see miles upon miles of destroyed building, rubble in the street, and not a sign of life.  City after city ceases to exist.  A look at the nearby fields show dry cracked empty land.  Where are the previous inhabitants?  Not at home, for sure.  They are at our door, of course, where else could they try to survive.

For thirteen years the Americans fought the Taliban in Afganistan.  Then they continued fighting the ISIS in two more countries.

The Taliban were conquered.  But where are the Taliban?  They are back.

The ISIS has been conquered.  Where are they?  they are still hidden, they’ve not disappeared, they will fight back with terrorism.

Taliban and ISIS aren’t just armies.  They represent faiths and ideas.  You cannot kill a faith nor an idea with a gun,  These ideas are passed from person to person, from generation to generation.  A gun won’t convince them that they are “wrong.”

If we think that their ideas stem from ignorance, then the only way to fight ignorance is with education.  If we took a small portion of the money and effort that we spend on arms, we could supply a never ending number of schools and  teachers to all of these countries.  Besides learning their parents’ version of life, the young ones could read, search the internet, and learn other ideas.  Only education will finally conquer antiquated values.

So far, education has trickled along with non profit and non government agencies, trying to set up isolated schools sporadically in undeveloped countries.  The government doesn’t see anything wrong with using taxpayers’ money for the military.  As a taxpayer, I would certainly be happy that the money was spent on something useful, that our foreign aid should be spent on education rather than more highways for the rich in these poor countries

Cuba was blamed for “exporting revolution.”  What Cuba did export were schools and doctors.  Castro’s Cuba still exists.

If we are serious about tackling terrorism, military won’t do the job.  It is time to cooperate with the world.

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