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Edited on Sat Jul-22-06 10:08 PM by Finnfan
"An eye for an eye makes us all blind." - Mohandas Gandhi
Over the course of the last decade, Israel sought to destroy the PLO and its influence in Lebanon and in the Gaza Strip. They responded to attacks on their country with devastating ferociousness, and their plan succeeded brilliantly. The PLO is incapacitated to the point of irrelevance. However, in its place are two more deadly and radical groups: Hamas and Hezbollah. Innocent Israelis are no safer now than they were 10 years ago. In fact, it could easily be argued that they are much less safe.
Hamas and Hezbollah have spent the past 10 years responding to the overwhelming poverty and hopelessness in their countries by killing Israelis with devastating suicide attacks. They have succeeded brilliantly. They have killed many Israeli soldiers and Israeli civilians. However, the poverty and the hopelessness have not eased - in fact, they have gotten demonstrably worse.
Now, the tit-for-tat battle has escalated and the whole world is feeling the threat.
"Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." - Martin Luther King Jr.
In 2001, the United States responded to a devastating attack on its own soil with deadly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Both attacks began with bombing raids designed to ease the entry of our ground troops and to limit US casualties. Both attacks caused tens of thousands of innocent civilian deaths. Both wars, in the end, failed, in large part because we could not win the hearts and minds of the civilian populations of the countries we invaded. Both wars have created a new generation of terrorists, hell-bent on the destruction of the US and its allies. We are no safer now than we were 5 years ago. In fact, many would argue that we are now less safe.
"I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed." - Mohandas Gandhi
There may have been a time, many years ago, when war made sense. When armies clashed with armies on the battlefield, and collateral damage was kept to a minimum (or unreported). But now, when the main weapons of attack are not armies, but missiles (or a single man armed with explosives), warfare as we knew it is no longer tenable. In the quest to limit our own casualties, or to strike out against an enemy far more powerful, we kill the innocent. And in doing so, we create a generation or more of murderous hatred from with we can never be fully protected.
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." - Martin Luther King Jr.
If we wish to claim that Israel's response to the kidnapping of its soldiers was appropriate; if we wish to say that Hamas and Hezbollah have a right to defend themselves by any means necessary; if we wish to say that our response to 9/11 was exactly what was expected of us, fine. Let's just be honest about it. All that the above options do for us is satisfy our sense of justice and revenge. They temporarily provide a bandage for our national wounds. They do NOT make us safer. They do NOT solve the problem. And they, most definitely, do NOT bring back our loved ones.
The two greatest accomplishments of the 20th century involved men who were not afraid to respond to violence by turning the other cheek. They knew that standing up and taking a punch was a more powerful statement than throwing one. They achieved their goals without killing a single innocent person from the "other" side, this even as they were watching innocents die (and eventually, being killed themselves).
So what do we want? Do we want revenge, or do we want safety? Do we need "justice" more than we need peace?
The choices are mutually exclusive. And the choice is ours.
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