Dairy Cows Fight Terrorism in Fallujah
Here's an innovative way to expand economic opportunity for Iraqi widows and reduce the threat of terrorism: give the women a dairy cow and teach them how to take care of it.
The U.S. Marine Corps is actually trying this in Fallujah, says the LA Times. They enlisted the help of Lockie Gary, a dairy-farming expert for Land O' Lakes. Gary is working with a group of 50 women — many are widows of insurgents — teaching them how to care for their cow. The women can earn a small income from selling products made from the cow's milk. But according to Gary, an added benefit is that in the long-term, this program might reduce the number of terrorist attacks in the area. He explains why in Farmer and Rancher Magazine:
If the cow could be made to produce enough milk beyond the family’s needs, then cheese and yogurt could be produced as well and the widow might be able to hope for a brighter future. The intent of the program is not entirely altruistic, however. With a source of income and a glimmer of hope, widows may be less inclined to be recruited as suicide bombers and that could save lives.
The program is still fairly new, and the women can't earn enough to support their families by selling the milk and cheese from a single dairy cow yet. But according to Gary, their high-quality milk and cheese should fetch better prices over time.
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An interesting article
This Wall Street Journal blog post mentions that one study suggested that job creation may not necessarily reduce terrorist attacks:
These ideas should definitely provoke us to think carefully about the relationship between violence and job creation, but I don't think they present any compelling reasons to stop focusing on job creation. It sounds to me like the authors have noticed an interesting phenomenon but don't know quite how to explain it yet. In a complicated issue like this one, a single study is probably not enough to draw any absolute conclusions.
Cows in Iraq?
Not knowing much about the native industries in Iraq, one wonders if dairy cows are something that Iraqi culture knows and understands? Or would goats be a more "natural" industry?
Imposing non-native solutions should not be an aspiration no matter how well intended.
Cows in the Middle East
In my experience, beef and cow's milk are commonly consumed commodities in the Middle East, and many common foods like lebne (a sort of concentrated yogurt) and cheese are also milk products. I think that people are much more likely to consume dairy by-products like those than beef itself, which is typically quite expensive. It's true that solutions imposed from the outside are more likely to fail, but I don't think that's necessarily the case here.
Terrorism and poverty
Andrew Sullivan highlights an interesting perspective on the war in Afghanistan here, asking why the U.S. doesn't give the Afghan government enough money to give its soldiers higher salaries than the Taliban gives its' recruits (currently the situation is the opposite). It's logical enough: whoever pays more will have an easier time recruiting poverty-stricken peasants.
In light of the enormous sums being spent in Afghanistan, of course, the comment that Mercy Corps' John Stephens made on OPB last week is also relevant: What would happen if the U.S. government invested in 30,000 teachers in Afghanistan rather than 30,000 troops?
The concept behind this
The concept behind this project is a good one. However, I question the economic sustainability of something such as owning a dairy cow. Only time will be able to tell whether it proves to be an effective way of reducing poverty as well as terrorism, but I wonder if there is an industry that has proven to be in higher demand that could be used in place of cows.
Empowering Women in Iraq
While we don’t know if the effects of thi s dairy cow raising program will have longterm success in deterring suicide terrorism, we can at least be assured that this empowers women in Iraqi society to live more indepently. The widows amongst this group often face a multitude of social stigmas that make it difficult for them to scrape by in an already fragile Iraqi society. I refer to this BBC story - “The shame of Iraq's pariah widows.” . Iraq is a newly independent country struggling to establish its own welfare infrastructure which means these widows often fall through the cracks. Even if the cow raising is not indigenous to Iraqi culture it offers hope to these widows who may otherwise turn to other illicit professions such as prostitution in order to provide for themselves and their families.
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