April 5, 2003

will the real cause of violence please stand up

My good friend shipped out to Iraq yesterday. We’ve talked several times over the course of the last few weeks about war and peace, violence and nonviolence, righting the wrongs and making the world a better place. He’s under the impression that we will never agree. I say never is a long time. I doubt very much that his experience over there will bring him any closer to my way of thinking, but then again... maybe all it will take is a good dose of violence to realize that maybe that isn’t really getting us anywhere.

I think it would be absolutely wonderful if their could be a war to end all wars. If all that was needed is Joey P “kickin’ ass and takin’ names”. This has yet to be the case though. We’re two World Wars deep and we still have a military. It’s not black and white, that’s naive. It is very gray. And I don’t think I have all the answers.

I’m very willing to listen to the arguments of the other side — that we’re doing some big humanitarian effort. That we are saving the people of Iraq from themselves (we thought we were doing the Native Americans a favor in much the same way). Maybe some of this is true. Certainly some Iraqis feel that we are helping them. I don’t think that Saddam (or any of the “Dirty Nine”) are okay guys who just need a second chance. However, from a Buddhist world view (and from a pretty normal, everyday American view too), killing these guys won’t suddenly make all of the problems go away. I remember in the ‘80 when Kadafi and Libya were the big threat. I was in the third grade, but it is one of my most vivid memories — the day the U.S. killed members of his family. A few months ago [apologies for not being able to find the article] I read on the nytimes.com website that Kadafi is now a changed man. Libya has offered to pay for the PanAm Flight 103 over Lockerbie and Moammar seems more likely to be seen promoting peace than conspiring to bomb civilians. But, wait! If this is true, then why do we still have violence in the world? If the man who was the biggest threat to our safety in the 1980’s is now just some old hippy how can we still have violence? Oh, you mean to tell me that we didn’t eliminate the real cause of terrorism? You mean to tell me that something (someone) else is now causing this to happen? How can that be? I think it means that doing violence back to someone isn’t the cause of them stopping the violence towards you. Maybe they will stop, but someone else will come along and do the same.

posted @ 7:24 AM

« it's a mistake | home | the plot thickens »