wiredfool

I want peace, and I don’t want to drag the world to war to get it.
I want freedom, and I don’t want to give mine up to protect it.
And I want peace and freedom for everyone.

If we go to war, we will fight an enemy who wants to die. A small decentralized enemy who believes their divine purpose is to take as many of us with them as possible. An enemy who will not abide by rules of war. An enemy who wants to polarize the world into an Islam vs. West world war. An enemy with probable access to biological and nuclear weapons and agents in western countries. When we kill civilians, it will be justification for more attacks. If we starve a country, it will be further justfication for suicide bombers. For every one we kill we will make 5 more.

And what if you track down these men and kill them? What if you murdered all of us? From every corner of your Republic, thousands would rise to take our places. Even Nazis can’t kill that fast. from Casablanca, 1942

Since the attack, America has been thoroughly predictable. Incredible heroism, volunteerism and courage. A feeling of unity. Scattered abuse of Arab-Americans. The desire for revenge. Congress meets, supports the president, and suspends civil liberties. The President attempts to reassure the nation and makes war noises. Most of us are expecting the US to bomb some third world country farther into the stone age. I’m sure the people in the candidate countries expect it too.

Lets stop the predictability now. What we need is not (at best) a protracted land war in Afganistan, nor do we need to cause collateral damage to force the Taliban from power, nor do we want to get into an atomic shooting war on our own soil.

We need to attack with intelligence, courage, and compassion. And we have to do it ourselves. We’ve spent too long manipulating others to our ends, arming dictators and insurgents then dropping them when we get bored.

We need to excercise fanatical fundamental compassion. We need nonviolent noncompliant action in those countries where our leaders want to drop bombs. If the people need medicine, we should send doctors. If the people need food, we should smuggle it in. We should bring the internet to every village. We should stand up for the oppressed. We must to respect the people’s customs, while resisting their leadership’s oppression. We must fight terror with compassion.

We have surplus grain, lets use it. We have technology, let’s use it. We pay farmers to leave their land fallow, let’s pay them for using it.

Let our actions speak against the terrorists words and deeds. Let our actions choke off the flow of volunteers for suicide missions.