Paradoxical Hope in the Age of Obama

Last year when Barack Obama was running for president the overriding theme was Hope. He had even written a book called The Audacity of Hope that outlined his vision for the United States. Many if not most the people who voted for him saw his election in almost messianic terms in that it was believed that Barack Obama would bring significant changes both in terms of government policies at home and our image and interaction with peoples around the world. Apparently the Nobel Peace prize voters thought so too, as it is widely agreed (even by Obama himself) this being given that award was not so much for what he had done, as for the hope and expectation his election to the presidency represented to the world.

For the last year Pres. Obama has been working to enact the agenda he campaigned on in spite of a crippling economic recession that reached its lowest point just as he assumed office. He has taken or proposed actions to stimulate the economy, hold financial institutions and big business more accountable, challenge people adapt to the realities of global warming, and pass comprehensive health care legislation. His vision and hope for change have clashed head on with the realities of conservative resistance and liberal dithering at home, and the brutality, oppression, and violence abroad.

Most recently Obama made a decision to send 30,000 more troops to fight an unwinable war in Afghanistan. I, like many others believe our approach there needs to be less military and more focused on education, building infrastructure and developing the economy. As Greg Mortenson points out in his book Three Cups of Tea, the best way to fight the Taliban is to build more schools. Our current approach simply kills more innocent civilians and therefore creates more “terrorists” whereas helping the common folks with their basic needs will not only raise their prospects but also draw them in to friendship.

Now to Pres. Obama’s credit, during his campaign he consistently said he would send more troops to Afghanistan. So no one should have been surprised at his decision. That’s why the Nobel Peace prize folks got a speech on just war theory because that is how Obama saw our involvement in Afghanistan. As he was deliberating these past months, I admit I was hoping that he would change his mind, but in the end he did not. So I was not surprised even though I was deeply saddened.

Despite Pres. Obama’s argument to the contrary, Afghanistan is very much like the Vietnam War: an unwinnable war, against a small and illusory enemy, supporting a corrupt government, in an effort without clear and measurable objectives. As Yogi Berra might say “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

All of this has gotten me wondering: Where is the hope we had so counted on and vote for?

Like many Americans I have generally believed in history as progress – that idea that as a nation we are slowly evolving toward higher levels of understanding and functioning that as our politicians often tell us, “Our best days are still ahead of us.” Moreover as a Christian I have generally subscribed to the idea that God is active in human history and moving humankind toward some glorious and positive conclusion, that the Kingdom of God is breaking into our world and at some point God will send Jesus to bring that process to completion.

Not any longer.

I have pretty much chucked those ideas now. I don’t see history as progress, nor do I see God moving us toward some millennium. I now see history, like I see my life, as a series of recurring patterns. The awareness of these patterns gives me the opportunity to learn and possibly change. However, the reality is that those patterns are so deeply ingrained that often change is difficult to achieve, and when it does occur, it is usually partial and inadequate. So for instance in my personal life, I find that the older I get the more I become like my parents in ways I find both rewarding and disconcerting. When it comes to events on the world stage, I see humankind repeating patterns, such as we are with Afghanistan, a pattern that reminds me disturbingly of the tragedy of Vietnam.

The even larger pattern I see is that empires fall. Persia, Egypt, Rome, Great Britain and the Soviet Union once were all great empires that dominated large parts of their world. Today those former empires are shadows of themselves. The United States as an empire is also destined to fall; it is part of an historical pattern. Whether it will happen in my lifetime or the lives of my kids, I can’t say. However, the decision about Afghanistan, along with the worldwide economic crisis triggered by Wall Street, the environmental challenges of global warming, and the growing disparities of wealth and poverty at home point to signs that US empire is beginning to crumble; we are repeating many of the same patterns of empires before us.

Despite these seemingly dire circumstances and my admittedly pessimistic perspective on our nation’s prospects, I still am a person of hope.

I am a person of hope not because I think we will break the pattern, but because I believe we survive and sometimes even thrive as a human race despite those patterns. My hope is not in the United States or Barack Obama or some romantic notion of human evolution, but rather in a God whose very Spirit gives the human race the capacity to somehow endure dramatic and often drastic changes. It concerns and saddens me greatly that millions of people suffer humanity’s arrogance and ignorance, and un willingness to learn from our mistakes. Nonetheless, it is the perseverance of those who struggle, who are oppressed, and who are neglected and maligned by the powers that be, who at the same time somehow are able to celebrate and dance. My hope is in God’s gift of resilience. My hope is in God who has sided with the dispossessed and marginalized against the powers that be, and who remains constant despite the recurring patterns of history.

As Jim Wallis writes : “Hope is the door from one reality to another. Things that seem possible, reasonable, understandable, even logical in hindsight….often seemed quite impossible, unreasonable, nonsensical and illogical when we were looking ahead to them. The changes, the possibilities, the opportunities, the surprises that no one or very few would even have imagined become history after they’ve occurred.” (quoted in Bass, The People’s History of Christianity, p. 310).

In short my hope in this age of Obama is not in our innovative and courageous president, nor a myth of human progress, but rather in the paradox that by grace God walks with us from this reality to next not because of our efforts, but often in spite of them.

The Enemy is Ignorance

Every once and a while I come across something that opens a new window to my understanding. Such was the case recently when I read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. For years I have lamented that we who call ourselves peace activists have not really put forth any clear proposals as to how to address the reality of terrorism in our violent world as an alternative to the single-minded military response that has characterized U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have been against war because we know it only creates the conditions that cause innocent people to suffer (called “collateral damage” by the military) and provides justification for a violent response by U.S. enemies. Yet, I have not been able to see any constructive, positive proposals that can combat terrorism in a peaceful way.

After reading Three Cups of Tea, I realized alternatives have been there all along, I just hadn’t been able to see them. Three Cups of Tea relates Greg Mortenson’s story of building schools in some of the most remote, mountainous areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the early 1990's, he was nursed back to health after losing his way on a mountaineering expedition by the people of the tiny Himalayan village of Korphe. In gratitude Mortenson promised to repay their kindness by raising the money to build the village a school. After raising money, taking several years to build a bridge over a rugged moutain chasm and then a school, Mortenson discovered his calling, and began working with local village elders and Muslim leaders to build schools in some of the most remote areas of Pakistan. He learned to respect and follow the traditional Muslim ways of negotiation, and earned the trust of local people and conservative Islamic leaders, who had a deep-seated and well-deserved distrust of Westerners. Long before the bombings on September 11, 2001 Mortenson heard of Osama Bin Laden and other Saudi Arabian rebels who were stirring up people in the Pashtun areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. On September 11, 2001 Mortenson was in Afghanistan meeting with local leaders aboaut building yet another school. While many of the commentators on the book focus on Mortenson as an individual hero, what strikes me most was how he allowed himself to become one with the people he was serving and thus a catalyst for bringing education, especially for young girls, into some of the most remote areas of the world.

The penultimate chapter of the book is entitled “The Enemy is Ignorance.” In that chapter the authors quote General Bashir Baz, a retired Pakistani military officer, who says:

“People like me are America’s best friends in the region. I’m a moderate Muslim. But watching [the US bombing of Iraq and the subsequent suffering of Iraqi civilians], even I could become a jihadi…Your President Bush has done a wonderful job of uniting one billion Muslims against America for the next two hundred years.

“Osama [bin Laden] is not a product of Pakistan or Afghanistan. He is the creation of America. Thanks to America, Osama is in every home. As a military man I know that you can never fight and win against someone who can shoot you once and then run off and hide…. You need to attack the source of your enemy’s strength. In America’s case the enemy is not Osama or Saddam or anyone else. The enemy is ignorance [emphasis mine]. The only way to defeat it is to build relationships with these people, to draw them into the modern world with education and business. Otherwise the fight will go on forever.” (p. 310)

The enemy is ignorance. That statement can be taken two ways. General Bashir said these words in order to stress the need for education in the Muslim world. But the ironic twist is that it also can mean Western ignorance of the culture and traditions of people they supposedly want to help. Stephen Covey says, “The way we see the problem is the problem.” Our problem is that we think the core issue is Osama and terrorism. What Mortenson and others like him are saying is that the core problem is our inability to see past our guns and bombs to the real need, which is a need for education and economic development.

Mortenson is not alone in his work. Syndicated columnist Trudy Rubin recently wrote about the work of Afghan activist Suraya Pakzad, who has been running girls’ schools for years amidst the rubble of the war, and Afghan businessman Aldo Maggazzeni who builds water systems in Afghan villages. Jim Wallis of Sojourners has recently called for a petition urging military de-escalation and greater investment in diplomacy and economic development. Increasingly, even military experts are recognizing the futility of trying to win over the people of Afghanistan with war. The British and the Russians failed miserably and gave rise to the Taliban. What makes the US think we can do better?

To be sure there are military dangers. The Taliban and al-Quaeda are vicious and dangerous, and do in fact terrorize people. However, if the US invested its billions in helping people like Mortenson, Pakzad and Maganezzi and used the military to protect them in their efforts, the downward spiral of violence and destruction could end.

The enemy is ignorance, starting with our own. The people of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s most remote regions need and welcome our help. Instead of barging in with guns and bombs blazing, we we need to sit down for three cups of tea to know the Afghan and Pashtun people, and allow them to know and trust us. Then, and only then peace, security, and justice will come to the region.