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While you were lying back enjoying your summer vacation, with nary a care in the world, the Russians were coming.
On July 28, Canadian CF-18 fighter jets scrambled to intercept two Russian TU-95 Bear bombers that had ventured within 465 km of Goose Bay, Newfoundland. Just 28 Julian calendar days later, the Ruskis were back, flying their propeller-driven behemoths just 56 km off our arctic coast line.
The threat is palpable. Clearly Ivan has evil designs on inhabitants of our easternmost outpost (fortunately, we maintain a strategic stockpile of Newfoundlanders in Fort McMurray for just such a contingency) and we all know the strategic importance of Banks Island—clearly it is a dagger pointed at the heart of Tuktoyaktuk.
But whether the Russians are after our precious bodily fluids, pining for the fjords or merely covetous of our muskeg, the federal government is determined to stand on guard for us—hence Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s announcement of his government’s plan to spend $16 billion to purchase 65 spanking new F-35 joint strike fighters. As the prime minister’s spokesman said, the F-35 “is the best plane our Government could provide our Forces, and when you are a pilot staring down Russian long range bombers, that’s an important fact to remember.” The plane also comes with floor mats and cup holders.
Of course, if we were really concerned about Canada’s security, we could take even more radical measures than buying new airplanes with an estimated lifetime cost in excess of $240 million each; we could choose to invest in some schools.
In his recently published book,
Stones into Schools, Greg Mortenson describes the work of his Central Asia Institute (CAI), a nonprofit agency that over the last decade has constructed 130 schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Built at the invitation and with the active participation of the communities they serve, these schools have emphasized the importance of educating girls. As Mortenson observes, “No other factor even comes close to matching the cascade of positive changes triggered by teaching a single girl how to read and write ... In military parlance, girls’ education is a ‘force multiplier’—and in impoverished Muslim societies, the ripple effects of female literacy can be profound.” More recently, CAI has shifted its emphasis from constructing school buildings to enhancing the quality of education, supporting teacher training and helping students to access higher education.
So what does this have to do with Canada’s security? Events, including the attacks of September 11, 2001, Canada’s subsequent involvement in the war in Afghanistan, and the recent arrests of Canadians who were planning acts of terrorism in this country, demonstrate that our security is ultimately dependent on fostering social and economic development and justice around the world. Our real enemy is not the Russians; it is the ignorance and poverty that is exploited by those who are actually killing Canadian soldiers.
Let’s be clear: building schools in central Asia is not an act of naive charity, and Mortenson is certainly no starry-eyed pacifist. As the American army bogs down in central Asia, its leadership has come to recognize the importance of Mortenson’s work and has turned to him for advice. His first book,
Three Cups of Tea, is now mandatory reading for US Special Forces soldiers preparing for deployment in the region.
If we are serious about advancing our security, we could accomplish more by spending a fraction of the resources we are now dedicating to playing high-tech Marco Polo over the Arctic Ocean to helping impoverished and isolated communities in Asia and Africa build and staff their own schools. But then again, chasing the Russians around is so much safer and far more fun.
Three Cups of Tea and
Stones into Schools can be borrowed from the ATA library. Call 780-447-9400 (Edmonton and area), 1-800-232-7208 (toll free from elsewhere in Alberta), e-mail
library@ata.ab.ca or stop by in person, Barnett House, 11010 142 Street, Edmonton.
I welcome your comments—contact me at dennis.theobald@ata.ab.ca.
