I read that the Taliban now control more of Afghanistan than before Canada’s 10-year waste of blood and treasure. As a ray of hope, the article notes that TV ownership has risen from about 40 per cent to 70 per cent of households over the period. The article muses that Canada might want to use our jets to bomb the Taliban (and ISIS) even farther back toward Neanderthalism.
Instead, let’s help bring sit-coms, soap operas and game shows within the reach of every Afghan household. Crap indeed, but crap that presents lifestyles and behaviours that challenge the tribalistic, knowledge-suppressing and women-suppressing anachronisms of their surroundings. And it’s the capability to watch this crap that matters most.
As for our military equipment, we could deploy convoys through the Khyber Pass filled with TVs, and we might use our jets to carpet-bomb restive areas with DVDs.
Doug Peterson
Victoria
