Childhood Hunger

Bill Shore’s Letters

Letter from a Bigger Battleground

September 2006

Dear Friend,

It's become conventional wisdom that after 9/11, the failure to challenge average Americans to sacrifice for their country was a missed opportunity to sustain national unity and promote the common good. But it's still not too late. And the catalyst for such a call may be coming from surprising quarters.

"For the first time a large military command has been established solely to address the root causes of terrorism in a region," according to a report in last weekend's Wall Street Journal.

Known as the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, the idea is to send teams of soldiers into some of the world's most troubled places to train local forces and build clinics and schools that extend the local government's influence. In Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya and Yemen, Task force commander Rear Admiral Richard Hunt's responsibility is to improve lives in the region so that people do not embrace extremist ideologies or shelter terrorists.

The article describes how the military's views have shifted to acknowledge the limitations of military force in preventing terrorism. This new approach to the deployment of military resources is said to reflect a broader rethinking on the part of the Bush Administration and four-star General John Abizaid who heads the Central Command that's responsible for Iraq and the entire Middle East.

If the senior leadership of the U.S.military is redefining its role beyond combat in this way, it suggests an opportunity for other American institutions - especially nonprofits, faith-based institutions, universities, and others - to do the same.

Throughout American history the portion of our population actively engaged in our national security has grown ever more narrow, culminating in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that have demanded not an ounce of sacrifice from most of us. As the brave men and women volunteers of our armed forces continue to face road side bombs and snipers in assignments so dangerous that casualties have mounted beyond 2600 deaths and 20,000 wounded, the rest of us continue to pump $3 a gallon gas, watch baseball and golf, fire up Labor Day barbecues, and spend our treasure on sneakers, DVD's and video games.

Even during prolonged war the vast majority of us live lives not only uninterrupted but unconnected to those we've sent in harms way.

The military's new direction suggests a different vision to which the rest of us might be called. If the war against terrorism goes beyond killing and containing terrorists, if it now includes improving living conditions, then perhaps there is a meaningful new role for the rest of us to play. Perhaps America is ready for a great debate about the responsibilities of citizenship in a more complex, interconnected world. We should continue to pose questions that have for too long been neglected:

What is being done to offer the world a compelling alternative to the conditions that breed terrorism?

What proposals are bold enough to rivet the world's attention as the terrorists have riveted ours?

Suppose terrorism abates not in the face of military strength, but in the face of justice. What would a bold campaign to promote global justice look like?

Leave aside for the time being whether we can afford it. Can we first even imagine it? For example:

• Could additional spending deliver the most basic relief, through clean water and immunizations, where today there is sickness, suffering and despair?
• Could presidential leadership inspire every non-profit and community-based organization in the U.S. to develop a partnership with a "sister NGO" somewhere in the underdeveloped world, sharing learning and resources, attentive to their needs in addition to our own?
• Could we expand the school breakfast and school lunch programs globally, as former Senators McGovern and Dole have proposed?
• Could Congress create something between a technologically superior military and a Peace Corps comprised mostly of English teachers, perhaps a Strength Corps that enables doctors, engineers, business leaders, financial planners and marketing experts etc. to engage in high impact service sabbaticals around the world?

A top commander in our armed forces is now asserting that in the battle against terrorism the kind of work those of us in the civic sector have traditionally done is every bit as essential as the very different kind of work the military has traditionally performed In today's ever more dangerous world national security depends not only on the effectiveness of the CIA and the Marines, but on the effectiveness of community development, health and education services, and the capacity building of NGO's.

America's diverse and growing civic sector knows something about such missions and has the talent and experience to make a difference, here in the U.S. and around the world. One small but important example is the international grantmaking of Share Our Strength, a direct result of the revenues generated at Taste events and the way we collaborate with corporate and other non-profit partners.

In the bible, Corinthians asks, "if the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall follow into battle?" Beyond our armed services, the trumpet has been all but silent in the five years since 9/11. America has more to give the world than bullets and bombs. Many of us in the civic sector eagerly await the trumpet's sound.

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