Someone Else

I have lately been getting some serious allergic reactions, when following Finnish media discussion regarding the recent events in Afghanistan that involved also Finnish peacekeepers. The key topics in media have included whether Finland is being at war and whether we should discontinue our participation to multinational peacekeeping effort taking place in Afghanistan.

To my great disappointment, it seems to me that there are great number of Finns, who think that there should always be someone else, who should take care of the problematic things in the world. Whether it is about supporting poorer nations in EU through paying larger share to the common EU budget, taking part in UN efforts to support developing countries in their struggle to survive, or sending our troops to peacekeeping missions lead by NATO or UN, there is always number of people crying - why should we bother, wouldn't someone else take care of those things instead of us?

Taking only look at the peacekeeping missions, I truly believe that the operations that we Finns take part in militarily are for the better of the people living in those countries or areas. Who can honestly say that for example Afghan people, especially women, would be better off under the fundamentalist rule? Therefore, it is quite difficult for me to comprehend that media is littered with pessimistic "troop withdrawal" kind of writing, where as true support to our troops, or thinking of strengthening them in order to help them in their difficult situation is basically completely lacking from public arena.

It is certainly true that there are many motivations for the western countries to be in Afghanistan or in any other conflict. For example, in our case our homeland defense will benefit, when our troops will get more experienced by serving in surroundings that resemble the actual war situation. Additionally, by our participation we publicly announce that we are one country in the set of countries, who are willing to take part in common efforts, when there is need for it. Even in such cases, where there is a great possibility for the worst case scenario to take place - taking losses for the greater good.

Needless to say, by participating to common efforts and by binding ourselves strongly to the western collaboration platforms, we are also trying to secure support to ourselves, if we ever happen to be in need of such. So that someone else would actually bother.