March 14, 2004
War on Terrorism
And now Spain. When will we understand that protection from terrorism is a delusion. They can go anywhere. We are not "safe". We will never be safe until we can make the world a more equitable place; where people have enough; where people are satisfied and want to preserve their way of life; where differences are accepted with curiosity and interest. Until then, we must work globally, cooperatively to minimize risk. The group that runs George W. has done nothing inspire other nations to help us. It seems that they have done quite the opposite and built a good deal of resentment worldwide.
I do not mean to trivialize, but terrorists are like the Indian meal moths that regularly invade my kitchen. They can so easily permeate impossible places, through sealed cellophane, for example, and turn up, to everyone's horror, atop the cream of wheat -- completely insidious, and impossible to to control. Forgive me for taking this analogy a bit further, but my meal moth problem was cured with with pheromones (mounted on flypaper). Sometimes love is the answer.
A woman in the IFS Mexico group told me that she had been attending a Thich Nhat Hanh workshop on 9/11. (He is a Buddist monk, and a peace and human rights activist.) You would think that the people who signed up to hang with him wouldn't have been so outraged when he suggested trying to understand why the terrorists were angry; some of them actually left the workshop.
Retaliation only begets retaliation. The nicest people get infected the "disease of violence", as Nelson Mandala would say.
Last night I saw The Battle of Algiers". This movie was made in 1965 by Gillo Pontecorvo, and features some real Algerian nationalists (handsome as movie stars, I might add). It was evidently screened this August at the Pentagon as "a field guide to fighting terrorism". I'm not sure what handy tips they thouoght it contained. Probably they just saw alot of Arabs, and thought it pertinent on that basis alone. I bet nobody bothered to identify with the increasing sadism of the French, or with their ultimate demise. Maybe they should run that movie for the folks again.
here is the trailer
Posted by Dakota at March 14, 2004 09:19 AM