Never Again!

“Never again!”

I remember this as a statement made many years ago by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre regarding the mass murdering of Jews during the Second World War.

I took this statement to be applied universally, not only to Jews. The goal was that people should not be selectively persecuted ever again.

Guess what? It has happened since the Second World War. It is happening still.

So, what are we doing about it? Like the League of Nations after the First World War, the United Nations doesn’t seem very effective.

In Canada, there are many who feel that we should not be in Afghanistan. Those who want us out tell how the Afghans want us out of the country, despite some reports to the contrary, including Canadian aid agencies that tell us that the military is necessary for them to try to build the country’s infrastructure.

I hate violence. Let’s be very clear about this. There is a time you have to stand up and fight for what is right – or at least resist what is wrong.

Driving to work the other day, I saw a hawk flying through the sky. This was not a fierce predator that I saw, though. Hundreds of smaller birds had ganged up on it and it was trying to escape.

What would happen if all of the nations who hate war ganged up on the terrorists and did whatever was necessary to stop them? Yes, this might mean getting hard on the drug dealers and addicts in our country who fuel the heroine industry that funds groups like the Taliban. Yes, it will mean that lives will be lost, much the same way lives were lost in Normandy in the Second World War.

Unfortunately, that will never happen. We seem more concerned about people’s rights than doing what is right. Or are we?

If we are so concerned about people’s rights, then who is going to look the Afghan women in the eye when we pull out and they are forced by the Taliban to surrender their rights? Who is going to speak on their behalf as they are herded into trucks and taken to the national football stadium and shot? Who is going to speak for a generation of people who don’t have the opportunity to be educated and work in the field they choose?

I don’t have the answers. I confess. Yes, the western world has made some terrible tactical errors. Sometimes it seems easier to cut bait and run.

However, I leave the answers to all those who seem to have all the answers. What are you going to say to all of these Afghan women? Certainly you will not be able to say, “Never again.” What will you say?