PRI's The World » 12/02/2009

Entire program – December 2, 2009

The World — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:25:12 +0000

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Today on The World: President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy gets a hearing on Capitol Hill; 25 years on – a look back at industrial disaster in Bhopal, India; And promoting polygamy in Indonesia.

Making the case for Obama’s Afghanistan plan

The World — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:24:40 +0000

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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen went before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington today. The panel was giving testimony related to President Obama’s plan to send more US troops to Afghanistan. The World’s Jason Margolis reports.

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MARCO WERMAN: President Obama’s new plan for Afghanistan was under scrutiny on Capitol Hill today. The Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on it. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, were there to field questions. Many of those questions focused not on the decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, but on this part of the president’s speech.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: These additional and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011.

WERMAN: Senators from both parties wanted more specifics on that. The World’s Jason Margolis has more.

JASON MARGOLIS: Senators were each given six minutes to question the Panel. Senators from both parties were largely supportive of the President’s new Afghan strategy, but one after the other most Senators asked the same question worded slightly differently. Here’s Republican John McCain asking about the July 2011 timeline.

JOHN MCCAIN: Will we withdraw our forces based on conditions on the ground, or based on an arbitrary date, regardless of conditions on the ground?

MARGOLIS: Defense Secretary Robert Gates offered this response, which he repeated many times throughout the hearing.

ROBERT GATES: We will begin the transition in local areas in July of 2011. We will evaluate in December 2010, whether we believe we’ll be able to meet that objective.

MARGOLIS: That answer failed to satisfy many senators. Some, like McCain, thought it represented the wrong strategy. Some senators thought the answer was too vague. Here’s Lindsay Graham, Republican from South Carolina questioning Gates.

LINDSAY GRAHAM: Will the evaluation decision be how fast we withdraw, or whether or not we should withdraw?

GATES: I think it will be principally whether the strategy we put in place is working.

GRAHAM: Is it possible in December 2010 to reach the conclusion it is not wise to withdraw anyone in July 2011? Is that possible?

GATES: I think the President in Commander-In-Chief always has the option to adjust his decision.

GRAHAM: So it is not locked in?

MARGOLIS: Graham posed the same question to Secretary of State Clinton.

HILARY CLINTON: Well, Senator Graham, I do not believe we have locked ourselves into leaving. But what we have done, and I think it was an appropriate position for the President to take, is to signal very clearly to all audiences that the United States is not interested occupying Afghanistan, we are not interested in running their country, building their nation. We are trying to give them the space and time to be able to build up sufficient forces to defend themselves.

MARGOLIS: That answer fed the next major line of questioning senators wanted answered about the President’s new strategy. Here’s Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma.

JAMES INHOFE: You see so many of these young, healthy Afghans that are walking the streets who ought to be in the military. What can we do differently than what we’ve done in the past to encourage a greater participation?

MARGOLIS: Gates answered that one with a monetary response.

GATES: In many instances the Taliban actually pay more than the Afghan government. And so one of the things that particularly in terms of retention is to increase their pay, and I think most people believe that will have a real impact.

MARGOLIS: Besides getting more Afghans involved, Senators pressed the Panelists how they would get NATO members to commit more troops. That’s a question the Panelists didn’t answer with any certainty, to the frustration of some Senators. Senator Graham pressed the issue, asking Secretary Gates to give the NATO allies a grade between an A and an F.

GATES: Senator, in all honesty, I don’t think any good purpose is served by doing that. I would say that those of us, those that have been fighting with us in the South, the Australians, the British, the Dutch, the Danes, the Canadians the Poles, I’d give them all an A.

MARGOLIS: Secretary Gates, Secretary Clinton and Admiral Mullen will face more questions about the Administration’s plan for Afghanistan at another committee hearing tomorrow. For the World, I’m Jason Margolis

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Bhopal disaster: 25 years later

The World — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:23:41 +0000

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On the night of December 3rd, 1984, a deadly gas leak at a pesticide factory in Bhopal, India poisoned nearly half a million people. More than 20,000 people have died since. But thousands more continue to be poisoned by the legacy of toxic waste left behind at the disaster site. The World’s Rhitu Chatterjee has more.

On the night of December 3rd, 1984, a deadly gas leaked out of this Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. The plant has since shut down, but tons of toxic waste remain at the site. (Photo: Pooja Prakash)

Bottles full of chemicals can still be found in the factory premises. (Photo: Pooja Prakash)

People living close to the old factory get their drinking water from an aquifer directly below the plant. They believe the toxic chemicals left behind at the site is leaching into their water and causing health problems. (Photo: Ram Narayan)

BBC coverage
‘Waiting for justice’ 25 years after Bhopal disaster
Photo gallery

Peru’s big ‘fat’ lie

The World — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:22:42 +0000

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Peru’s police chief has suspended a top investigator for saying he had caught a gang who were murdering people to sell their fat. Last month, top organized crime investigator Felix Murga said police had arrested four suspects who confessed to murdering up to 60 people. He said they were selling their fat for thousands of dollars a liter. But the macabre tale now appears to be nothing more than a tall story – or a big fat lie. The BBC’s Dan Collyns is in Lima and has been following the story.

MARCO WERMAN: A couple weeks ago, we told you about an odd story from Peru. A top police investigator there had announced the arrest of four suspects. The charges were gruesome. The men had allegedly murdered dozens of people, and sold their body fat for use in the cosmetics industry. The police called the men Pishtacos in reference to a Peruvian myth about an Andean bogeyman. We consulted Harvard University historian Gary Urton. He was skeptical about the news story, and told us that the myth dated back to the early days of the Spanish conquest.

GARY URTON: It was said that Europeans who came into Peru and came elsewhere into the Andes that one of the things they were looking for was they were looking for body fat to extract from Indians to be used for cosmetics and various purposes like that. In the present day ideas about Pishtacos are very common. In the Andean Highlands, a Pishtaco will find an Indian in an isolated place, leave him on a trail for instance, cut his head off and extract the body fat.

WERMAN: Well, they don’t call it a myth for nothing. The BBC’s Dan Collyns is in Lima and has been following the story. So Dan, two weeks ago, a police press conference with gorey visual aids, two bottles of what they said was human fat and a photo of a decapitated head. What has happened since?

DAN COLLYNS: Well, that press conference was extraordinary, of course, and it played very much into that myth which the last speaker just referred to about the Pishtacos. What happens two weeks afterwards is apparently there’s a complete lack of evidence and it shows that this particular police account was more fiction than fact. And now Peru’s Chief of Police, Miguel Hidalgo held a press conference in which he announced the Usedo [PH] Felix Merger, who’s the top police investigator who held that press conference about two weeks ago, had been put on indefinite leave from his job for sullying the reputation of his unit and misleading the country by saying that he’d caught a gang of serial killers who were allegedly murdering people in order to sell their fat.

WERMAN: I mean, do they have anybody under arrest for these murders then?

COLLYNS: Well, apparently four people were arrested and they allegedly confessed to murdering what the police said at the time was between 30 and 60 people in order to sell their fat for thousands of dollars a liter to the cosmetics industry. Now this all unraveled, this story, when although there were many initial doubts when the police in the region actually said they knew nothing about these crimes. And they were very surprised that these allegations which were being revealed in a press conference in Lima. They said that they only have evidence related to one of the alleged people who’s disappeared, and this is a region where there’s a lot of drug trafficking and there’s a lot of violence. It does appear that that particular murder may have been linked to drug trafficking.

WERMAN: And who are the victims and why would the police investigator make up this story about ritual flatulence?

COLLYNS: Well, that’s the question that everyone’s been asking. It seems that he got very carried away with the theory, which he have been told by these suspects, which were arrested, that they were involved in this macabre business of killing people for their fat. It may have been that he completely invented the story. There have always been doubts about this story. And many Peruvians who have said that this is just one of those smoke screens which is intended to distract the general public from other stories, other allegations related to the police or indeed other issues facing Peru. And one hypothesis is that the timing of this particular press conference about the Pishtacos was time to cover up a revelation about extrajudicial killings, which is a result of a journalistic investigation in Trujillo in the north of the country.

WERMAN: The BBC’s Dan Collyns speaking with us from Lima. Thank you.

COLLYNS: Thank you, Marco.

Nortec Collective

The World — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:21:16 +0000

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Nortec Collective is a group of experimental artists from Tijuana that prides itself on technical-savvy. Its name refers to its sound — a 21st-century fusion of Norteno folk music with electronic beats and production. The group’s Grammy-nominated members, Bostich and Fussible, are still obsessed with space-aged innovation from the border. But Corey Takahashi found that some of their latest projects have taken them closer to traditional–even classical!–collaborations. Corey brings us this report from Los Angeles and Tijuana.

These days, when you catch a Nortec Collective concert–like this one in L.A.–you don’t just see the group’s electronic musicians, Bostich and Fussible. You’ll catch one or two, or maybe more, traditional Mexican artists sharing the stage.

Bostich: “The experience of the crowd is totally different than when we played only our set with our computers and our electronic instruments.”

The musician Bostich, whose real name is Ramon Amezcua, says Nortec Collective has always incorporated folk sounds from northern Mexico. But now they’re playing live with the type of artists they used to sample: Juan Tellez is an accordionist who played with his four brothers in a Norteno band called La Tradicion del Norte. Now, he tours the world with Nortec Collective.

Bostich: “The accordion player that we have is like the Jimi Hendrix of the accordion. So he’s very virtuoso, he plays, he improvises in the songs.”

Bostich: “It’s like watching traditional Mexican music from the future.”

One of Nortec Collective’s most ambitious–and futuristic–projects was an October show in Tijuana. This time, Nortec Collective collaborated with Norteno folk artists…as well as the Baja California Orchestra.

Bostich: “Please come in, please come in…”

And we are here in Centro Cultural, Tijuana, at the Entijuanarte festival.

“This is the first time maybe here in Mexico that Norteno musicians, electronic music, and symphonic music is together in the same place.”

Nortec Collective artist Fussible, whose actual name is Pepe Mogt, says these odd pairings work for the simple reason that they sound like Tijuana. That’s the sound of a famously unwieldy border town.

Fussible: “Even for Latin people, I know that Nortec sounds weird. It sounds strange.”

Some of Nortec Collective’s new work captures the contrast of touring internationally, then returning to some of Tijuana’s harsher realities. Around this time last year, they came back from a long haul in Europe. The first thing Fussible wanted to do was grab some tacos.

Fussible: “We went to the tacos, and I remember in the street that take us to the tacos, in the middle of the street was one guy dead, recently dead, he was shot and he was on the floor.”

“So that’s why this album, we will have all these stories–like stories that we have back home, and stories that we experience on the outside.”

This is one of the works-in-progress from their new album.

“It’s never black and bleak, unless I say it’s so / I shift the gears and I gooooooooo / I have total control / I can’t be haunted / if I never see a ghost.”

They’re planning to put out the album in the spring. But one of the latest examples of their sound was released earlier this year–not by the group–but by a Berlin-based artist named Jessie Evans. Fussible says the singer and saxophonist is a fan of Nortec Collective. Jessie Evans got in touch with him, made a pilgrimage to Mexico, and had Fussible co-produce her album there, Tijuana-style…It’s a sort of “Nortec-ing” of another artist.

It’s just one of the latest collaborations Nortec Collective has used to take its Tijuana sound so far beyond the border.

For The World, I’m Corey Takahashi, Los Angeles.

Reactions in Afghanistan

The World — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:05:00 +0000

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The top US military commander in Afghanistan spoke to his officers in Kandahar today. General Stanley McChrystal said the new plan is not “the beginning of the end” but rather “the end of the beginning.” Anchor Marco Werman speaks with reporter Ben Gilbert who was in Kandahar today for the general’s speech.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan spoke to his officers in Kandahar today. General Stanley McChrystal told the officers that quote “Everything changes right now.” McChrystal was referring to President Obama newly-unveiled war plan for Afghanistan. It calls for 30,000 more U.S. troops and a draw-down to start about 18 months from now. Today, McChrystal said the new plan is not “the beginning of the end” but rather “the end of the beginning.” Reporter Ben Gilbert is in Kandahar at the air base. And tell us first of all, Ben, what did General McChrystal mean by that quote?

BEN GILBERT: Well, he had said that basically beginning today with Obama’s speech and the increasing troops that the last eight years can basically be put behind us and that today a new strategy that actually he’s been working on with his commanders on the ground around Afghanistan in preparing for and preparing to implement has now officially been instituted. It very much echoed what President Obama said, but added a lot more details obviously for his commanders on the ground and the civilian staff that are also here in Afghanistan.

WERMAN: General McChrystal also today worked on kind of honing the central message of this surge to the troops who are already there. Do you have any sense of what that message is so far aside from 30,000 new troops that are soon to be joining you?

GILBERT: Well, I think he made a point today that in the next year and a half Afghanistan will see a difference. I mean, to listen to him speak, you believed that this is going to happen and that there’s no doubt about it, and that you forget the fact that 80,000 troops might have been nice as well. And he wasn’t sure of this either. I mean, he was ecstatic about these 30,000 troops coming and this new beginning. But he echoed President Obama’s message today. We are here to secure Afghanistan. Our brothers, he called them, the Afghan people and to secure the country and to help build a stable government and security forces here.

WERMAN: Ben, how soon can implementation of the new plan go into effect, and now soon could it make a difference? Did McChrystal talk about that at all?

GILBERT: Well, actually, he didn’t even have to talk about it. I mean, everybody who’s here knows that there have been plans in the works for weeks, if not months. Today, I was briefed by a General, Acadian General with Taskforce Kandahar. He’s a Canadian and he joined U.S. units here based, but it has control of Kandahar sitting about 85% of the population in Kandahar Province, and this is one of the most violent provinces to position troops in Afghanistan. So the units here had essentially been beefed up their surrounding Kandahar city and the strategy here is pretty much try to keep the Taliban out of the city. And these plans have been in the works for the last couple months, and so already they’re moving around brigades. They’re moving around units to try to implement this new strategy, literally today as these plans were announced that it had been in the works.

WERMAN: And how will the new U.S. plan with all these soldiers actually affect the command of this Canadian General you spoke with?

GILBERT: Well, he’s actually doing it because he’s going to have a lot more troops in a smaller area which their operations officer of this unit just was saying that it’s a smaller area, but actually there are more troops. So in terms of counterinsurgency doctrine he said this is a very good thing because this gives you a higher troop ratio to population ratio, which is the key to getting security in a counterinsurgency strategy.

WERMAN: Now, Ben, last night when President Obama made his speech you were with soldiers at Kandahar Air Base. What kind of impressions did Mr. Obama make on them?

GILBERT: Well, I think a lot of them heard perhaps what they needed to hear because my impression here of moral has been that it doesn’t surprise me how negative many soldiers have been about this campaign in Afghanistan, about being in Afghanistan, about fighting in Afghanistan. So I think in a lot of ways President Obama’s speech is coming at the right time. So President Obama seemed to address them with an urgency that I heard a number of troops today say to me, “Well, that makes me think about it again.”

WERMAN: Reporter Ben Gilbert in Kandahar. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

GILBERT: Thanks, Marco.

Arab impatience with the Obama strategy

The World — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:01:03 +0000

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Now that President Obama has announced his Afghanistan strategy, some in the Arab world are saying they’re like to see some action… on policy in the Middle East. The World’s Aaron Schachter reports from Beirut.

MARCO WERMAN: While members of the U.S. Congress are focused on the new plan for the war in Afghanistan, residents of the Middle East are starting to show impatience with American efforts to help resolve their dispute. Many in the region have long looked to the U.S. to help broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. But increasingly, people in the Middle East are losing faith in President Obama’s efforts. The World’s Aaron Schachter reports from Beirut.

AARON SCHACHTER: As he’s done since the start of his presidency, Mr. Obama made sure last night to highlight the U.S.’s newfound fondness for working together rather than dictating terms, especially when it comes to the Middle East.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: We have forged a new beginning between America and the Muslim World, one that recognizes our mutual interest in breaking a cycle of conflict, and that promises a future in which those who kill innocents are isolated by those who stand up for peace and prosperity and human dignity.

SCHACHTER: But here in the Middle East people are looking to the U.S. for leadership, not just talk. Eli Nasrallah is a Canadian commentator on the Middle East. He says there’s a mounting feeling that President Obama talks a good game, but doesn’t produce and last night’s Afghanistan speech won’t change any minds.

ELI NASRALLAH: This is in many ways a confirmation of the lack of doctrine, overarching principle in foreign policy. It’s a pragmatic response to a pragmatic problem; one foot in, one foot out.

SCHACHTER: But the truth is even if the President announced a soaring vision for Afghanistan, most in the Middle East wouldn’t be moved. Afghanistan is not what they’re focused on. They care more about what’s happening with the stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks. Amir Taheri is an analyst with the pan-Arab Asharq al Awsat newspaper based in London. He says Obama officials have been hell bent on changing Bush Era policies rather than coming up with policies of their own.

AMIR TAHERI: They have created total confusion in the region. There’s confusion in Washington that creates the perception of American weakness.

SCHACHTER: And that perhaps is President Obama’s greatest sin from the perspective of his critics. How can the U.S. force parties in the region into agreements if it’s not trusted or feared? But some Middle East commentators say folks here need to grow up.

RAMI KHOURI: It’s really simplistic and immature to say, “Well, you know, why doesn’t Obama do more to solve my problem?” I mean, that’s like little kids.

SCHACHTER: Rami Khouri is Director of the Issam Fares Center at the American University of Beirut. He says President Obama is doing pretty well considering what he’s up against.

KHOURI: On the Middle East he came out with strong position, he named Mitchell, he’s talked to Syrians, he negotiated with Iran, called for a settlement freeze, asked the Arabs to make gestures. Look at how he’s dealing with Afghanistan, which is obviously much more critical. On Iraq he’s made his moves. On every major issue that he has confronted he has systematically thought it through and looked at options and then come out with a clear plan and pushed for it politically.

SCHACHTER: Khouri says the Obama Administration is probably just taking some time to digest all the goings on in the Middle East before fully committing political capital. But Asarq al Awsat commentator Amir Taheri remains unconvinced.

AMIR TAHERI: The President of the United States should be able to both chew gum and walk, which means that dealing with domestic problems should not prevent him from fulfilling American responsibilities abroad.

SCHACHTER: But Egyptian columnist Adel Darwish says he thinks the image of President Obama as a ditherer is held by only a tiny percentage of Arab elites. He says the average person in the Middle East is still a big fan, and Darwish adds that skeptics could be won over with some bold initiatives by the U.S. elsewhere in the region.

ADEL DARWISH: If he managed a mini Marshall Plan for the West Bank, creating jobs and so on, that would be a sort of success. Again, a cultural Marshall Plan to train journalists, educate Arabs, help translate books, and then he probably would go down in history.

SCHACHTER: Darwish says the Middle East’s focus may not be on Afghanistan and Iraq, but success there especially in Iraq could also go a long way toward calming the region. One thing Middle East observers agree on is that the U.S. must work harder in places closer to home. For The World, I’m Aaron Schachter in Beirut.

Indonesian polygamy club

The World — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:00:02 +0000

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Indonesia allows men to marry more than one woman – but only under strict conditions. So polygamy isn’t that common there. The BBC’S Karishma Vaswani reports on a new controversial “club” that is trying to promote the virtues of polygamy.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. In Indonesia, Muslim men are allowed to marry more than one woman under certain conditions. Still, polygamy isn’t widely practiced there. Now, some Indonesians are trying to change that. They’ve created a controversial club to promote the virtues of multiple marriages. The BBC’S Karishma Vaswani recently met with some club members to find out what they are trying to achieve.

KARISHMA VASWANI: This is Karishma Vaswani, Jakarta. Rows of men kneel in prayer inside a large hall on the outskirts of Jakarta. The women sit behind. It could be afternoon prayers anywhere, but this one happens to be inside the sprawling headquarters of Jakarta’s newest club, The Global Ikhwan Polygamy Club. Set up here earlier this year but with its origins in Malaysia, the club says it has more than 1,000 members worldwide, as far away as Australia and the United States. Its not just polygamy that’s promoted here. Right now there are classes being held for children of many of the families who are a part of this community, teaching the next generation of this club how to become good Muslims. There’s also a minimart here that sells Islamic and Halal food, even a production house which makes Islamic films. But the main aim of the club is to promote the virtues of polygamy, as well as to support those who are struggling with their choices. In one of the club’s rooms the director of the organization Dr. Gina Puspita speaks to a group of young women trying to help them get over their jealousies and insecurities

DR. GINA PUSPITA: [In foreign language]

VASWANI: She says she, too, found it difficult when her husband Rizdam first took on a second wife.

DR. GINA PUSPITA: [Translated] It was difficult for me in the beginning, but I knew it was because of my emotions, my desires. There are a lot of advantages for women in polygamous marriages. We learn how to control our desires and our jealousies, and this brings us closer to Allah.

VASWANI: But Dr Gina’s stance on polygamy is firmly opposed by other women in Indonesia, including women’s activist, Nursyabhani.

NURSYABHANI: Its a kind of terrorism, its terrorizing Indonesian woman because we are fighting to abolish the Article 3, 4, and 5 in Indonesian marriage law that allowed husband to have the second or third and fourth wife.

VASWANI: This country has strict rules about who is allowed to take on multiple wives. The guiding principle of Indonesia’s marriage law is monogamy Polygamy is tolerated but tightly controlled, and you do have to go through a number of steps to take more than one wife. You have to get your first wife’s permission. You must prove that she is either infertile, terminally ill or not performing her wifely duties. And finally, you have to get the permission of a religious advisor.

Although there are no official statistics for how many people in Indonesia are polygamous, because so many of the marriages go unregistered, women’s groups say organizations like the Polygamy Club could prompt more Indonesian men to take on multiple wives. But that’s not an interpretation Dr. Gina Puspita accepts. Back at her house, she’s frying up some rice and chicken for her family for lunch. She cooks while Sawa [PH], wife number three, chops up the vegetables. It’s a picture of domestic harmony, an unusual family tableau. Her husband Rizdam says this system works for them.

RIZDAM: I think polygamy is good for me, much better than one of them because in polygamy we tend also to promote or to improve our leadership because you have to lead four wives. It’s not easy even to lead one now woman, it’s not easy. For a woman, it’s much, much difficult.

VASWANI: Indonesian women’s groups are calling on officials to shut the club down. But so far the Indonesian government has said it will only monitor the club’s activities. It won’t curtail it. For the World, this is Karishma Vaswani, Jakarta.

Canada withdrawal from Afghanistan

The World — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:59:25 +0000

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Canada has been a major contributor of troops to Afghanistan. Correspondent Anita Elash reports on reaction today to President Obama’s speech on an Afghanistan strategy.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman, and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH-Boston. When President Obama unveiled his new strategy for Afghanistan last night, Canadians were listening closely. They were waiting to hear exactly when the White House planned to begin its drawdown of American troops. And that’s because Canada has vowed to pull its soldiers out of Afghanistan by 2011. Today, Canadian officials stood by that pledge, as correspondent Anita Elash reports.

ANITA ELASH: Canada’s contribution to the mission in Afghanistan has been a hot potato for politicians here. So this morning, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon didn’t waste any time saying how happy he was with President Obama’s announcement.

LAWRENCE CANNON: Canada welcomes the additional military and civilian resources the United States will deploy to Afghanistan particularly to the south. We are pleased that the objectives of the U.S. policy are complementary to Canada’s own priorities.

ELASH: Analysts here said that by announcing the start of a withdrawal in 2011, President Obama has done Canada a huge favor. It has twenty-eight hundred troops in Afghanistan. They’re in Kandahar, one of the most dangerous parts of the country, and they’ve had the highest casualty rate of any army deployed there. As more and more Canadian casualties are brought home, Canada’s commitment to Afghanistan has lost most of its support. International Security Expert Roland Paris said the deployment shattered the Canadian image of itself as a nation of peacekeepers.

ROLAND PARIS: Part of the shock for Canadians is realizing that the mission that Canadian troops have been involved in was not a peacekeeping operation, but it was a war-fighting, counterinsurgency mission. And as that realization dawned on many Canadians that contributed I think to a sense that this isn’t really us, this isn’t really our role in the world.

ELASH: The Canadian government decided last fall to end its mission in 2011 at the same time as the U.S. now plans to start its withdrawal. But even with public sentiment on its side, Roland Paris says Canada would have had a hard time following through on its promise to withdraw if President Obama had insisted on staying.

PARIS: Canada has faced a very significant commitment of money and of troops and of blood to the Afghanistan mission so far, and given the contribution and the sacrifice that Canadians have made, it might have seemed strange for the government of Canada to say we’re just going to quit.

ELASH: Part of the new U.S. deployment will see extra troops sent to help the Canadians re-establish security around Kandahar. Roland Paris says that should make their mission more effective and possibly less dangerous. If the new strategy succeeds, that could make it possible for Canada to extend its mission in Afghanistan beyond 2011 if it’s needed. But perhaps in a more traditional Canadian role as peacekeepers. For The World, I’m Anita Elash in Toronto.

Ministering to military families

The World — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:58:34 +0000

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Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Pastor Chris Phillips about the challenges of ministering to active duty military personnel and their families.

MARCO WERMAN: Few reactions to the President’s decision to send more troops to Afghanistan will be more profound than those of American military families. Those families often rely on their local communities for support. Take those living around Camp Lejeune, the Marine base in North Carolina. Many families there turn to the River of Life Church. It’s a non-denominational Christian community not far from the base, in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Chris Phillips is Pastor there and Pastor Chris, last night President Obama announced that 30,000 more troops will be deployed to Afghanistan. Presumably some of them will come from the area that you minister, and some of them will come to your for counsel before leaving. What do you say to these young men and women? What advice do you have for them?

PASTOR CHRIS: The Marines and Sailors who are pat of our church are highly skilled professional, young men and women and they are ready and capable of going anywhere and doing anything that the President asks them to do. You know, we don’t really necessarily have to encourage them very much. The people that we have to encourage are the families that are left behind.

WERMAN: And what are the challenges of ministering specifically to these families?

PASTOR CHRIS: The challenges that we face are to provide them with support they need emotionally, to keep them in a place where they’re busy, they’re occupied, not just sitting at home and sort of count the minutes until their loved one gets home. But to be able to be proactive and to do some things that will make a difference. So once a month we send out care packages to the deployed Marines and Sailors so many of the wives that …

WERMAN: This is the Deployed Military Support Group you’re talking about?

PASTOR CHRIS: Yes, Deployed Military Support Group. So many of the wives are working actively in that, and that gives them something to do not just when they’re putting the packages together but they have social events, they have nights out where the kids will be watched and taken care of so that these moms that are pretty much working 24/7 taking care of their kids without a break will have a night out to go to a movie, to go bowling, to do something. Just relaxing and fun to release some of the pressure and some of the stress. And each Sunday we ask if anyone has returned from deployment, and then when we find someone who has returned from deployment, they receive a sustained round of applause, a standing ovation and we welcome them home very, very enthusiastically and let them know how much we appreciated their service to the country.

WERMAN: Right. I’m sure that that applause is a real morale booster for them. What happens after the applause? How do you help them with their transition back here in the States?

PASTOR CHRIS: Well, we see all kinds of things here. The rate of divorce is extremely high. We’ve been able to help couples who are going through difficulties once they get home, having some problems. But one of the things that we see is the types of things we’re doing seem to be pre-emptive. So because we’re taking care of the families, we’re not seeing as many of those types of situations that perhaps would occur otherwise. Many of these young women are barely out of their teens, and they’ve got a couple of little kids that are in diapers. And when their husband goes off they haven’t been married that long, maybe they didn’t come from the most stable home environment. And this area then would be extremely tempting for them to go out to the clubs, perhaps get involved in another relationship while their husband is deployed and wind up creating major, major problems in their life, that the husband is thinking about and struggling with while he’s deployed.

WERMAN: And is that a problem?

PASTOR CHRIS: Because he doesn’t know where his wife is on Friday night, and he doesn’t know who she’s with or what she’s up to. And when that young woman is planted in this local church, and we’re taking care of her, encouraging her, then that guy doesn’t really have a whole lot of things to worry about. And that just creates a clean slate for them to start right up again where they left off.

WERMAN: And presumably the danger is the same for the husband coming back from overseas, going out with his buddies once he lands?

PASTOR CHRIS: Yeah, and usually, you know, because we have been providing them with an opportunity to spiritually stay in a place where that doesn’t seem like that’s such an attractive option when they do come home. They usually skip that part and they just wind up, you know, coming to church the first Sunday and picking up right where they left off.

WERMAN: Do you find there are more questions as a deployment such as this one is announced?

PASTOR CHRIS: It’s difficult. I wish that every person in America would have an opportunity to spend enough time in a community like this to really understand who these people are. They’re not drafted, they’re volunteers. They’re not stupid, they’re not people who have no options who are only doing this because they can’t do anything else. They’re just some of the best people that I’ve ever been around in my life, and they don’t sit around and ask why do we have to do this? They believe that this is more of a calling than a job.

WERMAN: Chris Phillips, the Pastor at the River of Life Church just outside Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Thank you very much for your time.

PASTOR CHRIS: Well, I appreciate the opportunity, and I love to talk about these guys. They’re great people and we’re happy to be in a position where we can take care of their families while they’re taking care of us.

Geo Quiz

The World — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:57:52 +0000

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Our daily geography puzzler.

Geo answer

The World — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:57:22 +0000

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For today’s Geo Quiz, we were looking for the name of a region in Canada that gave its name to a late 19th century gold rush. The answer is the Klondike in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Mining for gold is still going on there today. Anchor speaks with Mike MacDougal of the Klondike Placer Miners’ Association in Whitehorse.