More Schools, Not Troops -- A Commentary

From The New York Times:

Dispatching more troops to Afghanistan would be a monumental bet and probably a bad one, most likely a waste of lives and resources that might simply empower the Taliban. In particular, one of the most compelling arguments against more troops rests on this stunning trade-off: For the cost of a single additional soldier stationed in Afghanistan for one year, we could build roughly 20 schools there.

It’s hard to do the calculation precisely, but for the cost of 40,000 troops over a few years — well, we could just about turn every Afghan into a Ph.D.

Read more ....

My Comment: I completely agree. Long time readers of this blog know that I have always been an advocate for providing education to the young in war zones. This is one of the most powerful weapons in our arsenal .... but it has unfortunately not been well utilized. I should know, I have been actively involved in this since 2001.

I am the co-founder of Bookyards, one of the webs oldest online libraries. I started this project to promote free ebooks to third world countries that have an internet access. Since our launch in 2001, we have had 12 million visitors and over two million ebooks downloaded from our library database, with countries like India and Pakistan being two of the main users of this resource. The soldiers are fighting the war their way .... I am fighting this war my way.

We are presently modifying the site to become an easier to use resource for education and ebooks. By January of 2010 we will be launching a new version of our library site that will be easier to use and filled with tens of thousands of useful links to ebooks and resource sites.

While I spend a considerable amount of time keeping War News Updates current, my online library project takes most of my time. When our new online library version is ready to be lauched, we will be announcing this news via through all the blogs that we maintain ... this blog included. At that time, I will be asking everyone's support in promoting and/or at least publicizing the site. Every new visitor counts.