Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award
Reposted from John Edwards Blog
http://blog.johnedwards.com/story/2007/9/10/20353/0435#19
Challenge And Implementation Of CITO: John Edwards Gave The Gettysburg Address Of The 21ST Century
asaiyed777 in Arguments & Analyses
9/11/2007 at 9:32 AM EST
From a close distance, it was nice to watch John Edwards delivering a speech at Pace University Auditorium in NYC. It was even nicer to listen to a very important speech in which he launched a New Deal and that should have hit the headlines. Anyway, it is very important that John Edwards message hit every household in the nation. Let us all propagate his message.
The centerpiece of his new deal is a new multilateral organization called the Counterterrorism and Intelligence Treaty Organization or CITO, the acronym.
John Edwards talked about the need of a Counterterrorism Policy that would actually counter terrorism - a new deal that would thwart 21st Century threats with 21st Century tactics. He is right in every sense. 21st Century is the century of the World Wide Web. Life in the Era of WWW is like a chain-link fence, each human like a link is interconnected yet independent. Life is worth living and it should be that way for very human being. In reality, at each instance, when that does not happen a link is broken and a menace comes out of that. The root cause of terrorism is inequity and social injustice multiplying in unstable social and political environments.
John Edwards approach was, therefore, marvelous as he talked about eliminating poverty from a global perspective, increasing the funding for global primary education, expanding micro-finance programs and providing support for sanitation and preventive healthcare in developing nations. He also talked about dramatically increasing our promotion of constitutional democracies and the rule of law across the developing world to create political stability that would deter conditions of extremism.
Let me explain from personal experience what a pragmatic and practicable idea John Edwards put forth: I am forty-five years old and was born, raised and educated in Bangladesh. I am not institutionally highly educated, just a Bachelor Degree and not fortunate enough to go to college here in the United States. Even then I grew up with a tremendously positive attitude toward the United States. One might wonder why or how! When I was a kid, Franklin Publications had a nation-building program in Bangladesh under patronage from USIS (United States Information Service) later changed name to USICA (United States International Cultural Agency). In this program Franklin published over four hundred quality books on different topics authored by famous American writers. Those books were published in Bengali, the language of Noble Laureates Rabindranath Tagore (Nobel Prize in Literature), Amartya Sen (Nobel Prize in Economics) and Mohammed Yunus (Nobel Peace Prize as the proponent of micro-lending and founder of Grameen Bank).
Those nation-building books for the children were the richest in content yet unbelievably the cheapest in the market as they were subsidized. I was fortunate enough to go through some of the books; learned about America and its people, world history, scientific discoveries, etcetera. Therefore, as I was growing up, I was growing up with a positive attitude toward America and its people and a sort of indebtedness was developing in my mind as I could buy three or even four of those wonderful nation-building books for the price of one regularly priced book selling on the market. So, there were perfectly wise/effective public relations back then. Unfortunately, the program stopped, USIS or USICA now history and deprived our next generation from the opportunity to know America by the heart. I presume that USIS sponsored Nation-Building Program was running in other countries as well and ended at the same time when it came to an end in the country where I was born and raised. I think it was during the early 1970's. Therefore, during the last 36 years or so, all over the world, young generation was growing up knowing very little about America; rather, the generation was growing up nurturing a negative attitude toward America as the culture in third world countries was for good or bad reasons to blame America for their economic encumbrances, political instability, inequity, social injustice and other internal problem. In extreme cases children were growing up with animus toward the United States and could easily be motivated to carry out subversive activities against the United States. Within certain groups the hatred was so intense among certain individuals that they would not hesitate a bit before destroying America at the expense of themselves - they are the suicide bombers. Surprisingly, most of them are very young and below 36. How many suicide bombers over 40 carried out their mission? If the reward of suicide bombing is placement in heaven then why did not we see suicide bombers over 40, 50 and even 60, who have lived their lives considerably past the lives of the young suicide bombers who carried the mission, instead and spared those young people who had lives to live? Motivation and brainwash are required to bring about a suicide bomber out of a human being. My point is, therefore, for the last 36 years or so detachment and disengagement from the Nation-building Program by the United States left a breeding ground for terrorism and gave rise to the worldwide terrorism against the United States.
Therefore, John Edwards as he says in his speech, " Several months ago, I proposed a sweeping effort to eliminate the poverty and instability that create the condition for extremism, including increasing our funding for global primary education to $ 3 billion a year, expanded micro finance programs, ramping up our support for sanitation and preventive healthcare in developing nations, and dramatically increasing our promotion of constitutional democracies and the rule of laws across the developing world" is an effective and 21st Century tactics against 21st Century threat.
John Edwards envisioned CITO, Counterrorism Intelligence and Treaty Organization. CITO will bring all nations together to fight terrorism by voluntarily sharing financial, police, customs and immigration intelligence. CITO will create a historic new coalition by connecting a wide range of nations including countries on all the continents in their fight against terrorism as most of them share a common interest in shutting down terrorism. Countries that are presently alienated or hostile to the United States shall also be embraced. Very importantly and quite wittingly John Edwards called for working hard at home to ensure that extremist ideologies do not take hold in our own Muslim communities and that must be done within the realms of Civil Liberty and respect for diversity and without racial profiling. He further said that when he would become the President he would encourage American Muslim participation in public life as he would put new resources to engage American Muslims, empower mosques to counter extremist ideas and work hand-in-hand with Muslim communities to identify and isolate threats.
John Edwards talked about establishing a "Marshal Corps" patterned after the military reserves that would include at least 10,000 civilian experts. Its members will be deployed abroad to serve on reconstruction, stabilization and humanitarian mission. CITO, therefore, shall have Goodwill Ambassadors who would restore our damaged image and rebuild the broken trust.
John Edwards has the prescience to understand what would make CITO a strong organization, as he pointed out the need for improving the quality of human intelligence of the people who would be running CITO through a thorough understanding of local languages, cultures and the people. He, therefore, mentioned giving out 1000 new annual scholarships for students who would be pursuing careers in intelligence and diplomacy. Definitely, we need a multitude of Lawrence of Arabia to counter terrorism.
Echoed through John Edwards' speech what a precarious world we live in today. The mutual trust is lacking, everyone is holding one's fire and racing to acquire as much weapon as one could possibly get. Now, a man named John Edwards stands up to say that we will be better off when the world is free of nuclear weapons. Wouldn't you like to see such a man as the President of the United States?
Whoever is reading this I entreat him to read John Edwards' speech in its entirety. What a magnificent speech! Please read not only to understand the purport of the speech but also to absorb it. John Edwards' speech was not for America only, but for the entire world. So eloquently John Edwards put, " Do we have the vision to imagine a better world? Of course we do. Do we have the strength to protect our people? Of course we do. And do we have the guts to say, we know that this struggle is not just about our future, it is about your future, wherever you live, whoever you are? Of course we do".
The ending of John Edwards' speech was magical, " This is America, after all. We are more than a place. We are an idea. An idea that has changed the world and will change it again and again. We are freedom, equality and respect. A beacon once lit that can never be put out". I simply call John Edwards' speech at Pace University as the Gettysburg Address of the 21st century.
The Challenge of CITO:
As John said quite truly, " It's important to note that CITO is not a Panacea, nor will it be perfect. But it would represent the first step in a new direction", I foresee three great challenges that need to be overcome in order to make CITO a success:
1. Rebuilding The Trust: The most important challenge is to regain the trust of the world community. To regain the trust we simply cannot sidetrack the immigration issue. We cannot be beacon of hope to the world community while they watch us deporting the undocumented aliens en masse. We should bring out immigration as on of the key issues. If not amnesty, a chance to legally work is a must (http://blog.johnedwards.com/story/2007/8 /29/23059/3299).
2. Religious Harmony and Tolerance In Homeland: We do not have a statistics how many American Muslims dropped Mohammed from their names. But we know that is happening in America. We do not have a statistics how many American Muslim did not get even a call to appear for a job interview despite applying and being qualified for the job. If we do not change our attitude toward Muslims, will people in Muslim countries work with us to eliminate terrorism?
3. Working With Terrorists To Eliminate Terrorism: Many governments in third world countries are terrorists themselves and have their own muscleman to suppress the people. Political killing, vendetta, corruptions and vice are rampant in those countries. How will they work with us as a partner of CITO?
The Implementation of CITO:
1. A Lesson To Learn From India: On August 14 of 1947, the Indian subcontinent was partitioned into two Countries: (1) The Present Secular India and (2) Pakistan, meaning Holy Land, a country formed for the people of Muslim Faith. But this partition came at a huge cost to human lives. Violence swept all across India and millions of people were killed in communal riots to justify a Two-Nation Theory that said the Hindus and the Muslims are incompatible and need separate countries for themselves. It was such a bad riot that even infants were not spared. As, the countries were formed and as the way the partition was created, majority of the Muslim community found to their dismay that they remained in India. The radical Hindus then demanded that the Muslim should leave India as they got their Pakistan and they were targeting the Muslim. In Delhi, killing of Muslims went on and that heinous action was endorsed by a Radical Hindu Organization run by some highly educated people including a Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University. Mahatma Gandhi urged everyone to calm down and asked protection for the Muslims. As his call did not work, he went for hunger strike. Days went by and he emaciated to the point of death when the doctor said that no more saline and glucose injection feed would keep that old man alive. When this news was heard, the radical Hindu leaders came back to their senses and realized that by their action they were sending the Father of the Nation to death. So they went to see Bapu (meaning father), as he was affectionately called, vowed not to kill the Muslims anymore and requested him to break the fast. So, this Bapu saved the life of people belonging to faith different than his. From his name we have the word Gandhism (a specific method of civil disobedience that successfully used non-violent techniques to free India of British Rule). 25 Days ago India celebrated its 60TH Anniversary. India is the largest democracy in the world and has the highest population of Muslims than in any other country individually in the world. Dr. Abul Kalam Azad was the president before the current one. Dr. Azad is a Muslim and before he became the President, he was India's Chief Scientist. Constitutionally, India is a secular country with Hinduism (possibly 800 million followers) being the predominant religion. Since its inception, India was the successful target of terrorist attacks numerous times, communal riots ensued from dispute over mosques or temples in places happened too. Major cities and towns were bombed, terrorists hurled bombs at its Parliament building while the session was on, fired and killed its lawmakers. Radical Muslim Organizations claimed most of these terror attacks. Yet after 60 years, India has a robust standing with head held high in pride and is a Superpower. India's foundation is Communal Harmony. Muslims in India were not blamed for the attacks that were carried by people supposedly having the same faith. Media did not participate in any kind of mass media activities that purported wrong messages about Muslims. We should take our lesson from India and also should have a Continental/Regional Headquarter of CITO in there.
2. Choosing The Partners At The Onset: CITO is not expected to accomplish its mission in one day. As I mentioned before that working with terrorists to eliminate terrorism would be a serious challenge as many governments in third world countries are terrorists themselves and have their own muscleman to suppress the people. Political killing, vendetta, corruptions and vice are rampant in those countries. Therefore instead of setting SITO everywhere in the beginning we would be better of setting regional centers in New Delhi, Islamabad, Jakarta, London, Paris, Sydney, Kabul, Cairo, that is some major cities on each continent and propagate from less hostile to most hostile regions gradually. With this approach as CITO keeps on attaining its goal and its benefit becomes obvious, more hostile nations will be inclined to us and gradually CITO will attain its objective as John Edwards said, " Millions of people around the world are sitting on the fence. On the one side are Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, and on the other side is America. The question is which way they will go. If they perceive America as a bully, it will drive them in the other direction. If, on the other hand, they see us as the light, the country they want to be like, the country that's creating hope and opportunity, it will pull them to us like a magnet".
ASHIQUL SAIYED
No comments:
Post a Comment