‘Three Cups of Tea’ advice for Obama

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34238313/ns/us_news-giving//
I was browsing the internet and came across this article today. I previously told you about the book in another post. This guy (Greg Mortenson) has it right. I believe the solution to the problems, not only in Afghanistan, but in the entire Middle East, revolves around education and getting to know the people on the ground being affected by the war.
It seems to me that in Iraq, we didn't start making any significant progress until we started working with the village leaders to help them overcome the problems in their own villages. They wanted al-Qaida out as bad as we did, but we kept throwing our forces and money at people who did not have the ear of the locals. The military finally "got it" and began working with the locals and they were able to drive al-Qaida out of the areas.
The same applies in Afghanistan. We will never win the war on terror by throwing bombs at it exclusively. By meeting and working with the local elders (shuras) we would be able to meet their needs and they would take care of the war on terror.
I heard that if you educate a man it helps him, but if you educate a woman, you educate a village. I really believe that if we could do what Greg Mortenson is trying to accomplish in the region, we would eventually have success.
Read the article. It is pretty perceptive. The military now believes him and uses him. If we can get the politicians on board we may win this war.

Bicycles and life

Roma's new "used" bike.

Early in the fall our ward did a clean up for a lady in our ward. We spent an afternoon cleaning up her yard and home. When all was done there was an old rusty bike in the yard. I looked at it and saw that it was an old style Columbia bicycle. We asked her what she wanted to do with it and she said just to take it to the dump. Roma has been wanting a cruiser bike so I asked if I could take it and try to restore it.

It sat for a week but then I decided to tackle it. I began by taking it apart. Everything was rusted and it became a real chore to get it into pieces. I sprayed everything with WD40 and started cranking on the pieces. Some just wouldn't come apart so I sprayed more WD40 and waited a few days and tried again. After about a month I had everything apart but the seat post. I went and borrowed a big pipe wrench and began cranking on the post. It still wouldn't move so I sprayed it again and the next day put the wrench to it again. It moved just slightly so I kept working at it and after about 15 minutes of cranking on it the rust broke loose and everything was apart. I thought that I would have to paint every surface but after rubbing some of the pieces with a s o s pad they began to brighten right up. Some pieces, like the rims were too rusted. I went ahead and painted them with a chrome paint and they looked all right, but eventually we need to buy some new rims. The fenders needed paint also. I painted them a pretty blue and then painted the frame white and the forks blue. It looked beautiful. I cleaned up all the bearings and gears and then had to remember how to put them back together. When it was all done it looked beautiful. I was unable to restore the seat so purchased a new one. The tires and handlegrips were also replaced. It was a great project.
I started thinking the other day that that bike was a lot people. Sometimes we get rusty with lack of use, both physically and spiritually. We need to get the rust out and sometimes it takes a little time. Conditioning takes time and patience. We don't get it great shape in a week or even a month. It takes time. The same thing happens with our spiritual life. We don't change our lives overnight, but over time. I think our society is way too impatient. We expect things too quickly. Life is a process and if we do it correctly we can turn ourselves into beautiful cruiser bikes.

Why so long?

Why did it take President Obama 3 months to decide to do exactly what his Generals told him to do before his long deliberation of the issue. What a waste of time. It makes you wonder that he was just pandering to special interest groups to let them think thier views were being heard.It just gave the Taliban 3 more months to consolidate their gains and make it that much harder for our troops to roust them out.

In another vein. I hope that when we have taken out the Taliban that we do some things to win the hearts of the people both in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I would like to recommend a book that we all should read. The book is "Three Cups of Tea". It was written by a man who has devoted his life to establishing schools in villages in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. His thoughts are that we can't win the war on terror without winning the hearts of the people We don't do that by bombing the heck out of them, but by showing them that we care by helping them help themselves. Read the book. It is life changing.