Thoughts on War and Peace, Pt. II

All Sides as God’s Side, All Lands as God’s Lands

NOVEMBER 27, 2006 — Since 9/11/2001, overt displays of patriotism have been the rage. Rage was “in.”The lust for a war we thought we could can “win” has the airwaves. Everywhere you went the American flags caught your eye; on flagpoles, draped on buildings large and small.

That was then, this is now.

Our armed forces mobilized. They deployed with orders to exact our vengeance on Osama bin Laden, his Afghani hosts, the Taliban, and anything that stood in our way. It was time to “kick some ass!”

That was then, this is now.

Smaller flags flew from our cars, minivans, trucks, and SUV’s. They flew on everything from Hyundai’s to Hummers, “XJ” Jaguars to Navigators. We loved our country. We hated our enemy for hating us. They loved their country. They hated us for being us.

A desolate land was laid to further waste while we hunted for those responsible for the attacks. According to us, we liberated its people. Our thirst for vengeance unquenched, our President, demanding justice, said we must go to Iraq.

And after assertion after assertion that the September sky would fall again if we didn’t continue the invasion, we took Iraq’s leader down.

On posters, bumper stickers and t-shirts, we proclaimed our special connections in high places.

So did they.

“GOD BLESS America!” “All praises to ALLAH!”

That was then, this is now.

Look at what we have today.

The whirlwind sense of national invincibility has lost its luster. We’re asked to be suspicious of our neighbors, particularly if they look or worship like them. We’re asked to turn over precious freedoms to the government “for our own protection”, giving officials permission to look into our private lives, and make assumptions about us, without due process. All of a sudden, we’re subject to being suspected; we’re subject to having our freedoms limited, all in the name of finding, weeding out, and eliminating terrorists. But the question is, just who is the terrorist?

I love this country, and I love the people of the planet… all of them. I love them, simply because they are here, now. We may not be in the same boat, but we are definitely on the same ship, sharing this same time in history. God bless ’em. God bless you… and me too!

Instead of pointing out what is “wrong” with this picture of America and the Current World (dis)Order, I’ll simply ask, how could it be better?

How about if Americans weren’t being targets for Iraqis, and Iraqis being targets for other Iraqis?

How about if the only rains that fell in Iraq came in the form water, and not bullets?

How about if Israeli Jews recognized the rights of Palestinians to exist in peace, and Palestinians did likewise?

How about if children learned of the peace that was chosen as each side got its fill of war, in new schools built to cultivate young minds to see a new, brighter future?

This is a now that can be.

I’ll ask another question. Suppose the conditions that we have gone to war so many times over, were indeed created by our respective Higher Selves (everyone reading these words has one), the God Within, to give each physical human consciousness the opportunity to align with higher (Universal) principles? When we demonstrate that we will no longer be guided, or goaded by fear on large enough levels, then perhaps we’ll have the collective courage to face open and conscious membership in the Greater Society of the Universe. Since there is really no such thing as death (simply a change in state of consciousness), then it’s not about existence, but experience; what kind of experience we’re ready to open ourselves too?

Do you really think that we are the only “intelligent” lifeform in the Universe? Yet if we weren’t, and were faced with the introduction of forces and beings who had figured out how to travel interdimensionally and through time, do you think that we’d view them as threats? Or kindred? In the ideological place that we’ve been for the past few thousand years, I’d vote for the former. But I have a feeling that as we are willing to look beyond the war option and find workable solutions, as we are willing to see the kinship we have with the people we previously pointed guns at and set off bombs, we’ll discover a much wider and profound window of opportunity looming on the horizon. I also believe we’ll have the courage to open ourselves, and our world, to it, fearlessly.

That was quite a diversion, eh?

We have taken a measure of comfort in the bloodlust of vengeance. American soldiers—generally speaking, someone else’s sons and daughters—are still shedding their blood, valiantly sacrificing their lives to help politicians and military strategists maintain their belief that we are in control. We are not, and have never been in control. The terms freedom and control are oxymorons.

Our leaders are still sending, and thinking of sending American children; not their children, but the children of other Americans, to kill, while assuming (but not really believing) that death will stay overseas. They are doing so in order to maintain, support, and not be held accountable for America foreign policies that contributed to the 9/11 event happening in the first place. In the intervening time, these policies and practices have raised the risk of further hostile initiatives and reprisals.

As long as there are enough of other Americans’ children who think that service in the military is their best way to see the world or reach their goal, there will be plenty of bodies available to potentially have flags draped over them when our willingness to go to war rises to a point where it is no longer a “game.” This is part of Charles Rangel’s (D. New York) rationale when he wrote recently of reinstating the draft. It’s a way of making a point; backhanded perhaps, but a point nonetheless.

Though I feel where he’s coming from, Rep. Rangel’s proposal would mean more of the same. What needs to change is not our readiness for war, but our determination for peace, by being peaceful, pursuing non-lethal and non-destructive ways to get the business of life done.

A peaceful outreach to the Iraqi people would eventually disarm the “armamentality” that currently dominates the culture, perhaps making enough peaceful space for the Iraqi people to see other, peaceful possibilities, for themselves.

Yes, there are radical extremist Islamic clerics who speak of destroying the Great Satan, but there are likewise American extremists that consume themselves with preparation for race wars and other forms of apocalypse within our own borders. Yet, if you take away their Big Macs, big TV screens, or NFL football, they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves.

We can rationalize anything, even telling ourselves that God confers blessings through war, but it is unwise to let fear be our guiding light. How can we truly profess a relationship with God, Allah, or any of their representatives, and wish to bring destruction upon the Creation? Suicide bombers have perhaps bought the con that they will find virgin blessings on the other side if they take a dozen or more unsuspecting people out with them, but it can’t truly be ringing true to them. Otherwise, why be so angry and distraught when your own family members are killed?

Where are the “blessings” of war?

I’m just wondering aloud. Is affecting a “jump-start” in the previously moribund economy, or securing control over a country’s oil reserves a reasonable “blessing” of the war effort? It is a blessing from God? Defense contractors are probably shouting hallelujah as they ramp up production to replace munitions that are now being used. But do you think the ends have justified the means? Not to mention the costs?

War allows military brass to get “real world” experience with the many weapons systems—missiles, drones, night vision technologies, stealth, etc.—that they’ve paid billions for to give us the sense of having an “upper hand.” However, it seems to me that war extends an “upper hand” to no one.

Yes, peace may eventually come from war, but it won’t be because someone “won.” It will have been because so very many will have lost.
They will have lost someone, and something dear to them. They will have experienced that loss directly, deeply, and profoundly.

Yes, they will have lost property, buildings, businesses, or land. But these things could be rebuilt or replaced. They would have lost something that is far more important, something that is immeasurable and irreplaceable: the opportunity to be in relationship with their fathers and sons, aunts and uncles, mothers, daughters, and friends.

I believe this sentiment is growing, although at this moment, it doesn’t appear to be too popular in Iraq. Yet, for all of the casualties that our troops are sustaining, the Iraqi people are sustaining more, at the hands of their own countrymen.

I am not suggesting that we should not care, nor even that we should not be there. However, we should be there representing a body of people who care for the improvement of conditions in Iraq; not by deadly force, but by intelligent cooperation and conciliation. This does not mean that there would be wholesale casualties, for if unarmed peace-motivated Americans were killed, their martyrdom would overshadow the hatred, and expose the hateful for who and what they really are.

Ultimately, we are all humans; on all lands, of all languages, all colors, and all cultures. We’re humans, who all respond positively to love, respect, health, freedom, and peace. We all have the power to choose who, and how we will be toward other humans, and toward self. We all enter this world through a mother’s womb. But we won’t all leave this world through doom and gloom, especially when we treat others as we wish to be treated.

God Bless the WORLD of Humanity.

God Bless us all.

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