ANDREW KURJATA

Actine Epiror in Cuier

Dr. Michael Byers may not exactly be a
household name to the same extent as, say,
George Clooney or even David Suzuki. But
then again, he hasn’t precisely chosen a life-
path that typically leads to celebrity: to quote
his UBC faculty page (where he teaches in the
political science department):

“Michael Byers holds a Canada Research
Chair (Tier 1) in Global Politics and Inter-
national Law.

Dr. Byers’ work focuses on the interaction
of international law and politics, particularly
with respect to human rights, international
organizations, the use of military force, the
Arctic, and Canada-United States relations.
He is a regular contributor to the London Re-
view of Books, The Globe and Mail, and the
Toronto Star.”

Still, inasmuch as a political scientist can

become a celebrity, Byers is there. Aside |

from his aforementioned contributions to the
Review, the Globe, and the Star, he regularly
appears on CBC radio’s The Current and CBC
television’s the National, and is the author or
Intent for a Nation: A Relentlessly Optimistic
Manifesto for Canada’s Role in the World,

a book which has garnered a fair amount of |

publicity, buoyed up by extensive media ap-
pearances and public lectures, including one
at UNBC earlier this month.

In other words, Byers is fast-becoming that :

most rare of creatures: a public intellectual,
whom academics and journalists know by
name and whom the general public has heard
talking on the ten o’clock news or read about
in the book review pages, even if they don’t
quite remember who he is. To this general
public, the role Byers plays is that of “aca:

demic expert”: some supposedly unbiased
intellectual who cuts through the rhetoric
spewed out by politicians and policy-makers
and actually makes sense of it all, observing,
as he does, world affairs from an ivory tower,
championing the virtues of logic and reason.

Or at least that’s what one might think if
they never actually sat down with a piece of
his writing.

Now, don’t get me wrong—I agree with
a lot of what Byers has to say. His talk was
interesting, he clearly has a few good ideas
in his head, and his heart is undoubtedly in
the right place, But there is a passage from
his book in the chapter on Afghanistan that
has gotten under my skin and simply will not
leave. Again, to quote:

“Third, it is argued that the counter-insur-
gency mission is needed to protect the Afghan
people. But, again, are we actually achieving
this goal? In September 2006, I met Malalai
Joya, a diminutive but fiercely courageous
woman who, at 27 years old, was the young-
est member of the Afghan National Assem-
bly. Joya drew my attention to the appalling
conditions in which most Afghans live. Five
years afier the U.S.-led intervention began,
they have an average life expectancy of less
that forty-five years (compared with eighty
years in Canada), and 1,600 mothers out

of 100,000 die during childbirth (compared |

with 6 out of 100,000 in Canada).”

He goes on to talk about corruption within
the Afghan National Assembly and the fact
that much of Canada’s development money
is filtered through the World Bank and the
United Nations Development Program. Fair
enough. But it’s that passage there, the one
I just quoted for you, that gets me. How is

aS Ou.
The Trouble With Dr. Byers

With Intellectuals Like This, Who Needs Politicians?

this an argument? I’m not here to debate’ on
Afghanistan or whether we should stay or go,
I’m here to protect elementary rules of logic
and reason. Forgive me while I go
into a bit more detail about what I’m
pretty sure should be obvious.

Byers is saying that our goal of
protecting the Afghan people isn’t
being met, and he proves it by com-
paring lifespans in Afghanistan to
lifespans in Canada. He’s doing this
in the context of arguing that Af-
ghanistan is the wrong mission for
Canada, with the ultimate goal of

convincing politicians and the public to pull

out. But what good is it to compare the lives
of Afghans to those of Canadians? The for-
mer live in a developing nation in the truest
sense of the world, in the midst of yet another

AT H&R BLOCK

country’s fragile infrastruc-
ture over the last half cen-
tury. The latter live in one
of the most stable nations
in the world, a G8 country with a long hist-
ory of social welfare. Of course Canadians
jive longer than Afghans. We also
live longer than people in Africa,
but that’s not a reason to stop sup-
porting anti-malaria campaigns. To
make a Byers-style argument:

“We're told that the mosquito
nets are needed to protect the Af-
rican people. But again, are we
actually achieving this goal? Five
years after the anti-malaria cam-
paign began, up to one in three
Africans are infected with malaria (compared
with one in one thousand in Canada).”

Or, to play the Hitler card....

“We’re told that Canadian troops are needed
to protect the Jewish people from the Nazis.

conflict that has rocked the

OVER THE EDGE

March 26 - April 9, 2008)

But again, are we actually achieving this
goal? Five years after the war began, nearly
one hundred per cent.of German Jews are liv-
ing in death camps (compared with zero per
cent in Canada).”

If you want to show that we are failing in
our goal of protecting the Afghan people,
you have to prove that their lives were bet-
ter before we came, or that their lives would
be better if we were to leave. Maybe the life
expectancies of Afghans sans Canada would
be eighty years, and we’re keeping it down.
Or maybe it’s slowly on the rise, and Can-
adian troops are part of the reason for this. I
don’t know. All I know is that I would expect
more from someone who’s appearing in some
of Canada’s most influential media outlets as
an “intellectual,” someone who’s teaching at
UBC, one of the nation’s most respected aca-
demic institutions,-- hell, even just someone
with the word “Dr.” in front of their name. We
expect logical nonsense from politicians. Pro-
fessors ought to know better.

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