The Central Asia Institute is a charity which provides education especially to girls in the rural and poverty stricken regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Greg Mortenson, the founder of the Institute, achieved international fame with his non-fiction book Three Cups of Tea which described his adventure from mountaineer to education advocate in the Himalayan region, but recently his claims have come under scrutiny.

Of course, what Mortenson and his charity has done is great for the world fighting terrorism with education and providing education for many who wouldn’t be able to receive under normal circumstances.  However, how do we expect to see the end result achieved?

I don’t truly know the answer; it goes back to the concept of kill one to save a hundred.

The same question was brought up during the Iraq war.  Many felt we were lied to about weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and the risk that Iraq posed to America, but in the end we did rid a nation of a tyrannical leader and set a staple for democracy in the middle east.

I don’t know the answer to how far you should be able to go when the end result is something great but the means are in that blurry gray area.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” ~Edmund Burke.

When we just accept what our government or what others do because we like the end results is when atrocities take place. Sure we love cheap oil, but when are people going to ask how we are getting it so cheap? Sure we enjoy the shirt we’re wearing, but how were the conditions of those who made it?

These are questions to try to make everyone have a guilty conscience about enjoying things in our lives but it’s important to question why things are the way we are.