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THE ROOTS OF WAR
A friend of mine sent me an impassioned e-mail about stopping the war in Iraq. I thought some of you might enjoy reading the reply I sent. So here it is. I've rewritten it a little and added some stuff. I'm a cheat.
What are the real roots of war? That is the question that interests me. I'm not interested in politics. Politics only perpetuates fear and conflict.
You say you would be thrilled if the US pulled out right now. Why? Is it because of the compassion you feel for the suffering people of Iraq? Or is it more because if that happened you could feel that your side won and the bad guys lost? Is the best thing for the world the thing that thrills you personally? You need to ask yourself these questions very seriously. And you need to be able to be perfectly honest about the answer. If you say it's all of these and that this is OK, you're not really interested in peace at all. If there is even the slightest degree of your wanting to feel the thrill of winning against the "other guys" you are only interested in perpetuating conflict. This will never put an end to war. What are the folks in the anti-war rallies all over the world really aiming for? What are all the slogans and the chants and the signs and the die-ins all about? Is it about putting an end to conflict? Or is it a desire to turn conflict in a different direction? Is it possible to produce real peace by turning the conflict in a different direction? Will it help anything if you add your voice to the thunderous cacophony of noise that already exists?
I do not find the Bush administration's rhetoric about freedom for the Iraqi people the least bit convincing*. On the other hand, I find the arguments offered up by the so-called "peace movement" just as hollow and empty. If you are truly interested in making the world a better place you have to start with yourself. If you stand on the basis of wanting conflict, wanting to win, wanting others to lose -- whether those others are Saddam's Republican Guards or the American Republicans who want to drop bombs on poor innocent Iraqis -- then you cannot possibly make any kind of positive change. In fact you do more damage.
Don't be so hasty to try and solve the problems of Iraq. You have to look first at how this affects you personally and what it does to your behavior and how that behavior affects those around you. Does it make you happy to hold on so tightly to the hatred you feel for the Bush administration, to keep telling yourself "they are evil," to fill your head with all the reasons you can find to support that position? Does it help your life in any way at all to hold on to the fear you feel that you might someday be affected by terrorism related to this war, to worry about whether people from other countries might hate you for being an American? Does that make your interactions with those close to you better or worse? Do the thoughts churning constantly in your head refining and defining themselves more and more sharply, giving more and more strength to that part of you which wants to prove that 'I am right and they are wrong,' do these thoughts do anything that really helps anyone at all? Or do they only make you bitter, sad, unpleasant? Will adding more hatred to an already hate-filled world help or will it make matters worse? These are very important questions. It is vital that you ask them of yourself and it is vital that you are absolutely honest with your answers. Don't be too quick to respond. It is very difficult to look at matters like this with real honesty. Some people find it nearly impossible.
Where does anger come from? Not just your anger right now about the war, but anger itself. What is it? Is it caused by Bush's actions? Or is the real cause of anger something deeper? What is hatred? What is fear? What is evil? What is the need we feel to prove to everyone around us that we are right and they are wrong? Why is it important to us that others agree with what we believe? Isn't this the same thing the Bush administration and their supporters are trying to achieve? Where does that desire come from? Why do we do that? Does that help? Or does that just begin a chain reaction which will inevitably lead to more bombs falling and more people being killed?
Am I implying we should all happily swallow what our leaders say and adopt an empty headed "don't worry, be happy" attitude as if nothing's the matter? Not for a minute. You know me better than that. Society is offering us two options both of which are completely wrong. The hawks are wrong and the doves are wrong because both sides only want to see more conflict, more wars, more suffering. What's wrong with the hawks is far too clear to bother stating. But the doves cannot be happy unless there are hawks for them to fight against. The "peace movement" is only happy when there are wars to protest. They don't have the slightest interest in peace. I will not align myself with either side. These are not the only ways to deal with the problem. What am I suggesting you do? I wouldn't be so bold as to suggest anything at all. That's for you to discover. I only ask you to look at the matter very carefully.
Perhaps you find this difficult to accept. Perhaps you believe that it is too idealistic. But I don't think so. I am not talking about just ending this war in Iraq. I am talking about the ending of all war for all time. This is much harder and will take a lot longer. But the action you take right now will determine whether it can happen or not. This will not be achieved within my lifetime or yours. But I'm not concerned with that. If you're only interested in what can be achieved in your own lifetime your attitude is far too self-centered. I will continue to do what must be done, to vigorously tear away the roots of conflict itself from my own body and mind.
*But just because Bush and friends are a bunch of greedy shit-heads doesn't mean that the rest of us can't insist that they be true to their own rhetoric. If there's anything the peace movement can achieve it would be to work to force those guys to live up to their words.
-Brad Warner
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