Lessons from Human Cancer in Fighting Cancerous National Movements (Part 2 of 2)
By Dan Tow • Jun 4th, 2009 • Category: Politics, Worth A Second Look • 37 CommentsIn Part 1 of this pair of blogs, I discussed the similarities between human cancers and certain dangerous, violent national movements. I discussed what made a movement cancerous, and I invited comments in particular regarding whether Pakistanis believe that the Pakistani Taliban meets my definition of a cancerous national movement, with the frightening danger to the nation that this would imply. If you haven’t read part 1, today’s blog will make much more sense if you give it a look, first. For those of you who believe the grim message that Pakistan has a cancer within, I hope today’s blog offers some general insights about how the nation might respond, lessons that I have learned at high cost from my own family’s experience.
Certain characteristics apply to cancer of both the human and the national type, and certain lessons apply to fighting both sorts of cancer, I believe:
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Cancer is much easier to prevent than to cure, and easier to cure early than late. For the cost and effort of curing a single case of cancer we can prevent dozens of cases, with simple means like avoiding smoking and keeping a healthy diet. (Unfortunately, we do not know how to prevent all cancers, but those we can prevent, we should prevent!) Similarly, a nation can go far toward preventing future national cancers with good education, with an honest democratic system that provides feedback mechanisms and checks and balances to prevent government abuses and corruption, with protection and respect for the rights of minority groups, with a tradition of open, vigorous debate that allows all viewpoints to be heard, permitting nonviolent change, and with an economic system that rewards honest hard work and gives all a chance to advance, or at least a chance to see their children advance. If cancer occurs, anyway, though, let it be recognized and treated early, rather than late. Denial of the hard reality of cancer, leading to a failure to begin early, vigorous treatment, is a deadly mistake! Small, localized human cancers are easiest to treat before they spread, and small, malignant groups with grandiose, violently expressed ambitions to overthrow a government should be given no chance to grow – as the saying goes, “Give them an inch, and they will take a mile.”
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Cancer spreads, unless it is fought resolutely. Cancer shows no mercy to the normal, and abides no rules of the game. It will exploit any means to spread, but will grant no relief to the opposition. Those advancing a national cancer will lie, kill, intimidate, and terrorize those who oppose them. They will propose compromise and treaty when they need breathing room, then break all agreements when it suits them. Reasoned, open debate, gradual, democratic processes of change, respecting government checks and balances, and a universally well-educated population are all ideals rejected by national cancers, which instead rely as much as possible on one-sided, rigorously controlled propaganda and merciless, violent repression of opposing views. Above all, the ideas of national cancers reject the rights of human individuals, the rights of individuals of all races and religions, both men and women, to learn the truth and to think and choose for themselves – all such ideas are dangerous and subordinate to the “glorious” goal of the relentless spread of the cancerous idea, and to the unlimited power of those at the top of the cancerous organization.
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Cancer is a deadly serious opponent. Half-measures and compromise will not defeat cancer, neither the human nor the national sort. A human victim of bone cancer cannot offer the cancer, “Here, spread as you wish within this lower-left leg, but not past the knee.” Bargaining with cancer is worse than useless, as no bargain will be kept in the cancer’s unrelenting imperative to grow. As a matter of life and death, the cancer must be defeated. For human cancer, ultimate defeat of the cancer often calls, with today’s medicine, for nearly killing the human with drugs and radiation that are only slightly less deadly to the healthy cells than to the cancer, as every last vestige of the cancer must be eliminated, to the last cell. When this proves impossible, as it too often does, the cancer is only killed when it kills the human. A national cancer, too, calls for a deadly-serious fight, a fight that too-often unavoidably involves the death of thousands, even millions, tragically including thousands of innocents as the cancer shows no mercy and recognizes no rules of the game. If the cancerous bad idea cannot be utterly discredited, if the cancerous group is not utterly de-fanged, the result is horrid national destruction from within, national destruction that finally shows that as strong as it was as a movement in opposition to the old government (particularly when opposing an unpopular government), the cancer has no ability to run a country, except to run the country into the ground! Just as cancerous cells have no ability to keep a body alive when they replace healthy cells, a cancerous movement has no ability to govern a country successfully, when it finally achieves its ambitions of national power. The national cancer is finally “cured” when it so demolishes the nation from within that it simply collapses, and the cancerous ideas are finally rejected with disgust by their surviving victims, who finally recognize that the usually-unpopular government that the cancer replaced was overwhelmingly better than the cancerous alternative!
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Although cancer calls for vigorous treatment, a badly chosen treatment can do more harm than the disease. There is some danger in carrying the analogy between human and national cancers too far. There are cases where the best medical treatment requires amputating an entire leg to kill a few grams of cancer cells in a leg bone, but this does not mean that a government would be justified to destroy a province, or a tribe, or followers of a religion, or an entire ethnic group just to stop some cancerous group that was popular within the group to be destroyed! A government that would make such a choice would itself be a cancer! Cells in the leg have no brain of their own, and no soul, so for a human to cut off his own leg to protect his life is a reasonable choice, and the human has a right to make that choice for himself, but to kill innocent humans to ensure the destruction of a few guilty leaders of a violent cancerous group is another matter altogether! It is true, tragically, that if the national cancer is not caught very early, then some level of warfare will likely be needed to defend against the cancer, and no one yet has found a way to fight a war without innocent victims, especially a war against a merciless enemy that has no hesitation to kill the innocent, that refuses to wear a uniform, melting indistinguishably into the innocent civilian population when not actively fighting, just as human cancer cells defeat the immune system and modern medicine by their similarity to the body’s healthy cells. Modern medicine has not found a way to repair the dangerous mutations that make a cell cancerous, and even a single cancerous cell left alive can divide and restart the cancer’s deadly spread, so the only known cures, today, for human cancer require killing every last cancer cell, at any cost to the surrounding healthy cells. Fortunately, human ideas are easier to correct than a cell’s mutated DNA! A follower of a cancerous group can be rendered harmless simply by changing his mind! It is true that the leaders responsible for the violence of a cancerous group deserve death or imprisonment, and they are unlikely to surrender meekly to a persuasive argument. Without followers, however, there is no national cancer, so while the leaders must be fought by any means necessary, and the nation must defend itself as necessary against violent attack, the main battle should be the battle of ideas, the battle to persuade the followers to leave the cancerous cause, and to follow more constructive ideas. This is no easy battle, however – the crafty leaders of cancerous causes know that open, free debate is their enemy, so they do all they can to terrorize the other side into keeping silent. It is an uneven battle, with courageous, unarmed citizens on one side, and violent terrorists on the other doing their best to enforce meek silence and submission. The key is in numbers – when tens of thousands speak out, when they all make clear that they oppose the cancerous cause, and that they will not be intimidated, there is not so much danger to each individual, but if intimidation works, then those few who speak out even a little must show enormous courage, with a quiet, inspiring patriotism.
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Sometimes complete victory against cancer is not possible. Human cancer is frequently incurable and fatal in the end. In such cases, the nearest thing to victory that we can achieve is to live life courageously, to live in the present time and enjoy what we can, while achieving the objectives of ordinary life for as long as possible. In the end, the cancer will “resolve” the problem through death, and living well in the meantime is a partial sort of victory. This is not an easy solution, but the moral problem is possibly even more difficult in the case of national cancer. Even the worst sort of national cancer does not end the nation’s suffering with the death of all – even the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia, one of the most virulent national cancers in history, left about 80% of the population alive when utter national collapse finally ended the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror. Therefore, simply “surrendering to the inevitable” is not a moral option against even the most unstoppable national cancer – death will not “resolve” the problem of the cancer, and no matter how bad it will be if the cancer cannot be stopped before it grabs national power, it can be even worse, much worse, if everyone simply “surrenders to the inevitable,” and the cancer holds power longer and more thoroughly than absolutely necessary! Even if the cancer cannot be stopped before it takes control of the nation and wreaks terrible destruction, intelligent and determined resistance may make the difference between two years of national misery versus ten, or ten years versus forty, between the death of 1% of the population versus the death of 5%, between the death of 5% versus the death of 20%. The national cancer will eventually destroy itself, but how long this takes, and how much suffering and death it brings in the meantime, and how well the nation recovers, will all depend on the determined and extremely courageous efforts of those who understand the errors in the ideas behind the national cancer, and who work carefully and intelligently to minimize the damage done and to aid in healing the nation when the cancer is finally destroyed.
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Keep hope alive! As grim as a diagnosis of cancer is, sensible hope and optimism are vital allies in the fight against it! If you despair of victory, the battle is half-lost! See my almost two-year-old post Despair or Hope (which is mercifully short!) for some earlier thoughts that I had on the value of hope and optimism even in the face of grim difficulties.
In light of Part 1, and in light of the general lessons I drew above, I would be very interested in your more specific comments on your own national situation: Do you believe that your nation is threatened by a national cancer? If so, how immediate and dire is the threat? Is it a danger of something pre-cancerous potentially becoming a cancer, or a real cancer in the early stages, or a real cancer already well-advanced? What are the best ways that your government can fight that threat, in both the short term and the long term? Can other governments or foreign non-governmental organizations help, and, if so, how? Most importantly, how can common citizens within your nation help in the fight?
Please understand me when I say from the bottom of my heart that I truly know how difficult the possibility of cancer is to face, in either a person you love or in the nation you love. I thought long about whether it was right and useful to share these difficult, distressing thoughts. I ultimately trust that if you find my thoughts nonsense, then they will do you no harm, except to waste a bit of your time, and if you find some sense in them, then even the smallest bit of light that I may shed on this grave, life-and-death subject is worth the effort, even the effort to put up with my over-long blogs. Please believe, also, that you have my fervent and heartfelt best wishes in your struggle, if there is to be a struggle.
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The theme of cancer selected by Mr Don Tow to describe the conduct of Pakistani Taliban gives us their true reflection. Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth by means of intrusion and carry out destruction of adjacent tissues. It is said that they spread to other locations of body via blood streams and blood plasma. Most cancers form a tumour and their damage to other body remains limited but cancer like leukaemia like Taliban is the most savage disease that it goes after the white cells of blood and destroys them.
Nearly all cancers are caused by abnormalities in the genetic material of the transformed cells which may be randomly acquired through errors in DNA replication or they are inherited and thus remain present in all cells from birth.
Intrusion of Taliban and their savagery in Pakistani society resembles the cancers of leukaemia. It is a cancer caused owing to the abnormality in the gene and supposedly it is inherited from birth. The abnormality found in Taliban is that the people dwelling all along the Hindukush and Koh Kirthar mountain ranges which form the western border of Pakistan with Afghanistan, although boast them selves the people that they live by their given word and that they die for their honour and for the up keep of the norms and tradition of ‘Pakhtoun waley’; the way of pathans. But in doing so ironically they love to work as mercenaries and will carry out any given job for money; may it be through looting, smuggling of arms/ narcotics, kidnapping for ransom, killing or arson.
To carry out their job freely; they chose their dens in inaccessible and inhabitable lands. Void of any modern amenities and inaccessibility provides them the natural protection to escape the law of the land. That is why the areas of FATA and northern areas including the long stretches of Baluchistan that most of it are void of any communication roads and modern facilities and it is kept as such on purpose.
Hindukush and Koh Kirthar ranges stretching in the north from the towering Himalayas down to Khyber, Tochi, Gomal and Bolan passes; then the vast stretches of Baluchistan till it touches the Arabian sea are the old gate ways to the subcontinent of India. All the invaders, the Aryans , Alexander the great. Changez khaz. the Muslims from the south or the Moghals in the north, when they crossed these gates, the tribes from this area allowed them to pass through only after accepting monies and when these invader were returning back laden with the bootees they were again ambushed by these savage in the mountain that they know to have their share of booties. This is how they have been leading their lives.
The savage groups still sticking to their old traditions like present day Taliban; they are loyal to no one and only know the language of monies and work for it. Kidnapping for ransom, oppression and killing and looting is their centuries old profession and no surprise that in present age, the Pakistani Taliban called TTP with the very less effort were louvered in by the enemies of Pakistan like CIA of US and RAW of India to carry out the subversive activities in Pakistan; with the aim to destabilise it and make it depleted to fulfill their ulterior motive and designs
This cancer has to be eradicated from the land of Pakistan. Enlightenment and moderation has to be g brought in the areas and Taliban be exterminated and eradicated completely.
When these Taliban started breeding and were growing in strength, the government authorities kept on sleeping on the wheel and general public engulfed in the fear were keeping mum. Reportedly Millions of dollars have been paid to the savage Taliban, along with their sophisticated weapons and armoury. They were given the tactical training on guerrilla war footings. They have duly been helped in establishment of parallel logistic and communication systems. Non-jam able radio stations were provided to reach the general masses. They were running the well paid army equipped with latest small and heavy arms including Anti tank and bunker buster rocket launcher. Anti air craft stinger missiles have also been spotted.
Not only the menace of Taliban has to be eliminated but the source routes of their supplies are also required to be duly checked and dealt with.
You said, Cancer spreads, unless it is fought resolutely. and I would add that it spreads also continuously even when you start eliminating it from all the ends. You say that it’s incurable. Does it mean that now we would never be able to get rid of Taliban? and this fight is lifelong? I am scared, sir, but I will keep fighting as I also believe that I must go down fighting.
Do you believe that your nation is threatened by a national cancer? If so, how immediate and dire is the threat? Is it a danger of something pre-cancerous potentially becoming a cancer, or a real cancer in the early stages, or a real cancer already well-advanced?
It has every potential to spread to national level, but by the Swat operation, there is every hope that things will be be under control as the vast majority of Pakistanis abhor Taliban and their agenda. So this cancer is at early stages, and the surgeons are at work.
What are the best ways that your government can fight that threat, in both the short term and the long term? Can other governments or foreign non-governmental organizations help, and, if so, how?
Whether our own government or the foreign ones, what they can do in short and long term is to win the hearts and minds of people. Give them education, peace, jobs and health, justice and then why would they be exploited by anyone else?
Most importantly, how can common citizens within your nation help in the fight?
By keeping an eye on extremists elements and fighting them at the grass root level.
Oracle, I think I said that *sometimes* it is incurable - certainly that is the case with human cancer, and I think so also with national cancers. I also said, however, that it is easier to cure early than late - the Nazis, for instance, might have been stopped rather easily in the 1920s. Let a cancer advance too far, of any type, and cure becomes very unlikely, if not impossible. Like you, I do *not* think the Taliban is too far advanced to be incurable, as long as the treatment is strong enough and most people are united enough against it, and unafraid to speak out against it.
Dan
You are relating nazis too much with talibans which I dont think a balanced view point.Nazis were came into being owing to defeat of germany in ww11.As they blamed jews management for this defeat so they put the foundation of antisemitism, for creating that force that might lead Germany into the queue of super power again.In one way its roots were based on true nationalism.Afterwards how they adopted inhuman and brutal ways for multiplying their strength to become a super force who could have ruined all hurdles coming to their way.
Despite of this talibanic groups are formed by anti islamic groups by giving them camouflage of islamic principles specially by distorting the concept of jihad.
These groups are mostly created to curb shia power emerging from Iran in which lot of Arabs group contributed huge money to unprivileged areas of some typical tribal areas of other Muslim countries.Those who grouped nazis preferred to gather the intelligent cream of locals with extreme nationalist feelings but here who grouped talibans focussed on searching of right religious clerics only who could have gathered illiterate class of society to form a aggressive, volatile and destructive group.Talibans only need chief orders to react as per their training but nazis followed many logical conclusions to get their win .
They both are very similar in their actions like complete cleansing of their respective opponents, totalitarianism,use of power to create harassment etc but still nazis have an edge on illiterate and stone age warriors that they made their contribution in national development of Germany in spite of all destructive techniques they adopted during their win games.
Talibans used and still using US technology to create terrorism.It is something like of a leaderless resistance that depends on other’s funding and complex plans made by different forces of the world.These talibans are just pseudo soldiers used for other’s purpose and no way depicting or providing services to any kind of Islamic culture.But surely the way they misused the concept of jihad is always remembered as distortion of Islamic values in non muslim cultures.
Is it Nazia or nazis
@5
“”"”"You are relating nazia too much with talibans which I dont think a balanced view point.
Nazia came into being owing to defeat of germany in ww11(world war eleven)”””””””’
i have difficulty in understanding comment number 5…….please ruthlessly explain this term that ” is it nazia or nazis”..my regards misss
“They both are very similar in their actions like complete cleansing of their respective opponents, totalitarianism,use of power to create harassment etc but still nazis have an edge on illiterate and stone age warriors that they made their contribution in national development of Germany in spite of all destructive techniques they adopted during their win games.”
who are similar nazia or nazis.
regards
For you both should be placed on same level. ok
Nazia, I was really just using the Nazis as a handy example, a well-known group that was an especially harmful national cancer. The only similarities I intended to imply between the Nazis and the Taliban would be the similarities shared by all national cancers, such as: they start small; they are dangerous; they grow largely from support from some groups within the nation (though they may have external triggers and support, too); they have the potential to grow very rapidly; and, most importantly for the point I was trying to make, they are much more easily stopped while still small, and if they grow too big they might not be stoppable until they have brought national destruction on a fearsome scale.
@Raza Haider: You are an ex army officer. By adopting such an idiotic attitude, youa are not only humiliating yourself, but also bringing a bad name to the army. I would urge you to please revisit your comments.
Dan:
Well you have concluded it well, and I hope that the conclusion of the operation also ends on a positive note, which I believe will, as I trust the army and their intentions and their sacrifices. This time, also people have genuinely come to realize that Taliban are cancer and disease which must be cured where it is and must be proactively stopped where it hasn’t appeared so far. Pakistan is a muscular country and has been through tougher times than this and I guess that within some months, Taliban will vanish like they never were.They have already been routed.
Hi Dan
Dan what is benign, precancerous and malignant.
Do you have an idea about a benign tumor, a precancerous, a cancerous, a malignant and sarcomata’s?
Do you know what is Mets or metastasis?
Please justify article in the lights of following term for growth of tumor and malignancy and treatment as fate.
I am sorry but a pathetically written comparative assessment.
Please excuse me.
Without litigating your comparative idea as article any further let’s stick to your queried questionnaire.
@author” Do you believe that your nation is threatened by a national cancer?”
Dan when you talk and place issues over the platform of cumulative portfolio ;you sum situations in to a term called national consensus or national belief.
There is no such thing existing as national consensus or national belief of such groups under the heads of malignancy as cancer.
Please perceive malignancy in the light of its true medical definition and not your own version.
We have already instituted treatment in the shape of operation and excision considering it a benign, localized capsular overgrowth as tumor.
This is not cancerous or with a threat of local spread in to metastasis.
People of Pakistan disown this talibanic concept of sabotaging Islam and its principles.
Please see! Not all tumors are malignant neither are all incurable where as few are constrained and curtailed and are treatable as well; as we see in benign tumors and many malignant as well.
But if we talk about cancerous and those with sarcomata’s activity with generalize spreading concept as metastasis or implant else where; they are irremovable, aggressive or untreatable except palliative, chemo or radio therapeutic with fate as ultimate in to death of affectee.
Spreading concept here definitely relates to the concept of talibanic version of belief which under no means can be owned since our people have out rightly declared that its nonsense and a trail and trial against Islam.
Taliban’s are benign tumor and we will soon eradicate this disease by excising them completely along with their nutrient blood supply, the India and India and the India.
Under the methodology of diagnosis and finding as benign: your rest questionnaire stands irrelevant.
As far as your inquisition to get opinion as help from international community let me clarify here that “a surgeon on the table is the best judge” and presently; we are doing surgery.
What ever would be necessary we would follow and fill accordingly; if at all required?
Our common citizen needs not to worry since we have a regular army that is and was nurse and nurtured for these days only therefore; to defend their land and people.
Thank you very much. Regards
@11
Hi allah………………uff baji……ouchh…….baji jee sorry
@ 9
Para usted solamente
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua26qTEK25U
Dear Dan,
You have not answered about creation of TALIBAN by USA,Saudi arabia and Pakistan.
In todays TPS there is this post by a senior Pakistani Army officer Brig.Zaman about JUD(an organisation banned by UN as terrorist)
What about Cheney funded Jundoallha?
The following statement by Jundoallh in Balochistan of pakistan after killing worshippers in Iranian mosque says it all
“”"”"Ayatollah Khamenaei, the supreme leader of Iran, officially interpreted the natural death of Fatema, the daughter of the holy Prophet, as martyrdom, thus justifying the actions of those who have organised Omar Denunciation Ceremonies. The ceremonies began about two months ago in Baluchistan where the majority of the people are Sunnis and resulted in widespread conflicts between Baluch Sunnis and Iranian security forces. The tension mounted when the People’s Resistance Movement of Iran, Jondollah, initiated a bomb blast in a mosque that was dominated by the security forces and Iranian militia. The fanatics supported by the militia and security forces published huge posters in the streets and began denunciation speeches with mobile speakers in moving cars in different streets of Zahedan. Jondollah warned these groups to halt their offending ceremonies to one billion Moslems throughout the world but they ignored the warnings and continued displaying posters in their street gatherings. Other Baluch and Sunni leaders requested the Iranian authorities to prevent these provocative ceremonies but they did not stop. The Jondollah bombed the mosque that has become the centre of various provocations and the headquarters of these ceremonies after all other peaceful requests were exhausted. Ayatollah Khamenaei said a few weeks ago in Kurdistan that any action that may create divisions between Shias and Sunnis is treason, but now it is certain that he was behind all the offences that have been officially made against the second Caliph.”
Cancer in Pakistan is fed by USA with its dollars to a section of its leadership.Just imagine 4 million refugees running away from their own army to become IDPs.
Dr. Razahaider,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and well-explained response, which exactly fits the model of reasoned debate that I hoped would follow my postings. That said, the response is clearly critical of those postings, so here are some responses in respectful defense:
It is possible that I gave the impression that my questions to the readers were merely hypothetical, and that I wanted only one answer; “Yes, the Taliban is a national cancer upon Pakistan.” Nothing could be further from the truth! The reason I went into such tedious length about the nature of human cancer, and the requirements for a national movement to be cancer-like was precisely that I *did not know* whether the Taliban is really like a cancer, and I wished for Pakistani readers, who are so much closer to the facts of the Taliban, to answer the question for themselves, and to debate the matter, as you have, with my gratitude. Since not all readers can be expected to have your obvious knowledge of medicine, or my unfortunate close experience of cancer, I thought it best to go into some length about what I mean be a national movement being cancer-like, before posing the question. I could have *also* gone into equal lengths about alternative medical models for bad things happening within a nation, models like external injury, localized foreign invasion by an infectious agent, general infection, and, as you say, localized, “benign” tumors (also dangerous, potentially, but, as you say, much easier to treat!). I think we can *all* agree, however, that my posts were already running rather long even without these additions, however!
Today’s medical science has a highly refined ability to recognize the difference between a cancerous tumor and a benign one, even before the cancerous tumor proves its malignant nature by its rapid, pervasive growth. Unfortunately, early diagnosis of the difference between cancerous and benign (but harmful) national movements is not clear-cut at all - the difference is a *prediction* of *potential* for rapid, very-hard-to-stop future growth. *After the fact*, if the movement spreads widely and wreaks terrible damage, the diagnosis (too late to help, unfortunately) is easy (which is why all my examples of cancerous national movements were *historical*!). Before it grows, however, or after it is treated early and cured, we have only considered opinion - might it grow dangerously, or might it have grown dangerously if it had not been so well-treated? Some of your countrymen responding to this post see cancerous potential in the Taliban and believe that it should be treated as seriously and urgently as a doctor would treat early-detected cancer. You disagree, and believe that they were never terribly dangerous and are already being handled very well, and this is precisely the sort of debate that I hoped to see.
Please believe me, Dr. Razahaider, that I hope *with all my heart* that you are absolutely correct, and that future events are consistent with your belief that my post is irrelevant to any dangers faced by Pakistan, today!
(Even if this is true, however, I think it is worth considering my post in the light of preventing *future* national cancers and recognizing them early if they should occur! I believe that *all* nations, including the US, have *some* potential for future national cancers, and widespread knowledge of this risk is a useful thing that can help prevention, and can maximize the likelihood of early, successful cure, if it does get started!)
You appear to make a point that a true malignancy is incurable: “…they are irremovable, aggressive or untreatable except palliative, chemo or radio therapeutic with fate as ultimate in to death of affectee.” I know a number of people who have been cured of cancer, including my own stepmother, now in her eighties, who was cured more than 30 years ago. Lance Armstrong’s 1996 cancer metastasized to his brain and lungs before he was *cured,* and he went on to win the Tour de France bike race 7 times, since, continuing today to enjoy superb health. Many late-stage cancers *are* incurable, and some are even untreatable, it is true, and I think the analogy holds with cancerous national movements, which are easier to cure early.
Johann,
I think the topic of the root causes of the Taliban would be an excellent topic for another post. My own posts were already quite long enough, as I think all agree, however! Also, I think the topic of root causes would be one for those who are closest to the action, not me. That said, I think there are really two sorts of root causes to consider, here:
1) Root historical causes. I do understand that the US and many others played a historical part in creating the conditions that lead to the Taliban, although I am not aware of solid evidence that the US *specifically* sponsored the Taliban, itself. If you know of concrete, specific evidence to the contrary, that would be useful to share, with detailed references. These root causes are likely irrelevant to fighting the Taliban, today, but they may be of interest for those who wish to prevent recurrences. Certainly it would be useful for the US government to acquire the wisdom, if it has not yet, to prevent the future growth of groups so clearly against the US interests, as well as the world’s interests.
2) Continuing irritants that feed the Taliban, today, and make it more difficult to fight, today. This question is more immediately relavent to the matter of defeating the Taliban, today. I do not believe that the US is doing anything direct to feed the Taliban, today, though others apparently are. At most, it is possible that we are still clumsy in how we fight the war on terror, in spite of Obama’s best efforts to take a more reasoned, subtle approach, and this continued clumsiness might sometimes have counterproductive effects for example to aid recruiting by those we wish to fight. We surely have no interest or desire to *deliberately* aid these groups, however, as this would be *drastically* counterproductive to both our own interests and the world’s!
Dan
your theory about talibans are strong and it looks develop through US media services.The talibans who are getting treatment of complete eradication are somehow different than species originally produced in our borders through CIA and our army collaboration. Now here gathered the group of insurgents,effectees of war on terror in our FATA areas, victims of drone attacks ,deprived people of our valleys intently ignored by military rulers. .They got easy supply of US arms at their door steps since red war and this process is not stopped till now.The flow of money is very obvious that is their driving force in this blind war.
How these insurgents have kept busy our army in war games for last 20 months is a big question mark on the true or inattentive performance of our army.Why 3.4 locals are being punished for searching 5000 so called terrorists.You have serious problems in US mexico border almost same as we had in our side before 911. why these creatures are not generated in you this side of border.Your ignorance on actual funding of this talibanic movement from US via Saudi channel is a big surprise as no body here consider that we or duffer saudis can plan or finance such deadly game in our soil.This mushroom growth of deadly terrorists is a stateless parameter,Nobody cut their financial aid through our banks, arms supply was regular and unchecked, clerics who are leading this movements are protected in safe custody of ISI or in Saudi universities.So all these strategies have produced drastic effects in our peaceful mountain cultures that are again countering with more haphazard procedures of militarism.
Your post, Dan, is pertinent. One question please. Let’s suppose that we believe that the nation can be cured of the cancer, but that is also very painful for the nation. How to prepare the nation for that pain? Isnt it easy to convince a patient that as he is going to die of cancer if not cured, than to prick the whole nation?
Nazia, if I am as you say ignorant “on actual funding of this talibanic movement from US via Saudi channel,” then please help me correct my ignorance with *specific* references to specific, checkable sources of information that document the US involvement in Saudi funding. I certainly am not ignorant of the funding for this kind of thing coming from Saudi channels, although I do not myself know of any solid evidence that those Saudi funding sources are from the Saudi *government*. (Bin Laden is Saudi but extremely hostile to his own government, just to cite one example, and it is clear he has funded things like this, if not this, specifically.) Since US sponsorship of this Saudi funding makes no political *sense*, to me, and would be violently against US interests, in my opinion, you must forgive me for not simply *taking your word* for this! That said, however, if you can produce checkable, objective sources for what you say, I would be very pleased to have my ignorance repaired.
In general I do not believe that it is useful to call a writer or a commenter ignorant if you do not provide specific, verifiable information, with specified sources that can be checked, to correct his or her ignorance. Simply insulting a person is unlikely to change his mind, or to teach him anything, or to persuade him to listen to you, and is far more likely to shut his mind, and the minds of people who agree with him, to whatever you have to say.
Oracle, in response to your very reasonable concerns, I repeat my final bullet point in Part 2, the point that I deliberately left for last to give it most emphasis:
”
Keep hope alive! As grim as a diagnosis of cancer is, sensible hope and optimism are vital allies in the fight against it! If you despair of victory, the battle is half-lost! See my almost two-year-old post Despair or Hope (which is mercifully short!) for some earlier thoughts that I had on the value of hope and optimism even in the face of grim difficulties.
“
@17
Pensé que usted puede dirigirse a mí con amor