Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon itself. - Lao Tzu
As you sit in the church that was the center of your faith as a child, you look around with a sense of warmth and joy. You have all gathered to celebrate a cousin’s wedding day. Perhaps, it is a cousin with whom you are still close, or one you have lost touch with over the years. Either way, you are in the moment, enjoying family unity. You are reunited with the elders in your family for what you fear will be your last time knowing how difficult it is for everyone to gather all at once. You reconnect with those of your own generation and meet their beautiful children for the first time. It is a moment you treasure as you wait for the ceremony to begin. You hug your wife closely and glance at each of your children. The groom and his attendants enter and music begins to play. Everyone stands and turns to watch the bride begin the long walk down the aisle. She is glowing. You look toward your cousin and see his eyes tear up at the sight of his bride. As you take your wife’s hand, there is a flash of light and a loud explosion. You fall to the ground, unsure what has just happened. You try to get up only to realize that you are under a pile of rubble. You push and pull with what little movement you have until what lies upon you begins to slowly shift inch by inch. A beam of light becomes visible. Is it a way out or are you even alive? Is this what death feels like? What about your family, your children, your spouse? You struggle harder under the weight of debris until you are able to shift and move toward the light. Pulling to the surface of the debris, you glance where your wife and children were only moments ago. There is no sign of them. You begin digging franticly as you hear voices of those who have run into the destruction to help. When you are finally able to reach your wife and children, they are lifeless. Everything appears to be occurring in slow motion. It is at this moment that you finally look beyond your immediate surroundings, realizing the extent of the destruction. You become aware of other survivors, some badly injured from burns, shrapnel, and the weight of the destroyed building. You can’t think or feel. Your family has been murdered.
What do you do when the feeling returns? Do you want revenge? What if you are told by the authorities that at your cousin’s wedding, you were in the presence of a terrorist (something you either didn’t know or don’t believe) and that the collateral damage, the lives of your family members, your wife and children, were necessary for the safety of another country? Would you join an organization that was opposed to this government responsible for the attack? Would you join the military in your own country in order to seek retribution?
This is happening in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen and probably other locations around the world. The United States is using drones to target “known terrorists” and in the process killing civilians, including women and children. Is this the solution? Is this creating more terrorists than it is eliminating? If this happened to you in your home town in Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, or New York, would you just understand and move on with your life or would you want to act? Would you want the people responsible for this violent act to pay?
We saw this after 9-11. It was the worst attack on U.S. soil in history. Almost 3,000 people were killed that day. Murdered. United States citizens were shocked, angry, and scared. It was a devastating event in U.S. history and affected every American deeply and personally. Immediately, the consensus in the United States was to find and punish those who planned and set in motion the act of terrorism.
The government and the people wanted someone held responsible…so much so, that the Bush administration invaded a country with faulty (fabricated) evidence. We invaded a country in retaliation for the most tragic event in recent U.S. history that had nothing to do with the attack on the United States. We bombed their cities, destroyed their infrastructure, and removed their leader, Saddam Hussein (who was later tried and killed by the Interim Iraqi government). Over 125,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in this war. All of this, including loss of American soldiers lives and at great expense, for it to be determined that Iraq was not the country responsible for the attack on 9-11. How should the U.S. be perceived? As a terrorist state that kills women, children, and the elderly? If you were an Iraqi citizen, would you be pleased that another country invaded your country and killed your family, friends, and leaders, and destroyed all means of livelihood, leaving an unstable government in place? Would you feel terrorized? This war has been going on for more than ten years. You would have lived in a war zone for a decade? Who are the terrorists?
The argument often deflects from the unconscionable ‘mistake’ to the fact that Saddam Hussein was ‘evil’. Obviously, he was a bad man who did bad things, but wasn’t it up to the Iraqi citizens to determine the future of their country? Was it morally acceptable for an outside force to make these decisions without a full understanding of what the country wanted, needed, or was able to handle? Is it acceptable that our nation attacked another based on lies?
Many U.S. decisions are defended as being made in order to prevent other foreign terrorist attacks on U.S. soil…a preemptive strike strategy to eliminate potential terrorists at all costs. This is the way of the present. What about the future? What are the alternatives? What is the best that we can do as a nation and as world? The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is estimated to be $4Trillion to $6Trillion. Is there a better use for that money? Could this money have been applied more constructively? Of course.
We, as the human race, must evolve beyond this need for violence and revenge. We must end the senseless cyclical ‘eye for an eye’ behaviors that have plagued the history of the human species. There has to come a time when we can look at human nature, history, and flawed logic to recognize that our actions are not resolving anything. Since when are we all not humanists? Since when do we not acknowledge that an American child’s life or death holds no more value than that of a Yemeni child or any child? The idea that drone warfare among other violent tactics is the solution to terrorism is absurd. The idea that drone warfare used on innocent civilians is not terrorism is absurd. Violence breeds violence. Terror breeds terror. This has to be acknowledged. It is long past time for change.