MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN
The War of Love
By: John D. Giorgis
For the time being, at least, the United States' counterterrorist eforts
have been given the moniker "Operation Infinite Justice". I could not
think of a more appropriate name. Certainly, the primary effect of the
name was to create the aura of the long arm of the US Military reaching
across the world, but in fact, "Infinite Justice" is exactly what is needed
right now. Justice is not just needed for the families of the more than
6,000 victims of September 11th, but justice is needed for the people of
Aghanistan, the people of Iraq, and all the people in the world who suffer
under the oppression of terrorists and terrorist regimes. Justice is
needed, and it is time for the United States of America to deliver it.
Many people have correctly worried that the first war of the 21st century
looks to be a war that will be quite unlike any that has ever been fought
before. A counterstrike against terrorism will be for more difficult than
the counter-strikes on Imperial Japan, or on Iraq, or on Nazi Germany.
Unlike massive conventional armies and navies, terrorists, by their very
nature, have a unique ability to melt into the shadows and escape our
detection until they are prepared to strike. Nevertheless, while a war
against terrorism will be extremely difficult, it will not be impossible.
For just as war on tiny mosquitos may be difficult to wage by swatting one
by one, a campaign against mosquito-borne malaria can be waged by draining
the swamp where they breed.
Make no mistake, it is not mere coincidence that so many of these
terrorists share connections to places like Afghanistan and Iraq, places
that are quite possibly the least free and most impovershed places on
Earth. More importantly, these two places share regimes that are
essentially great wellsprings of hatred. Both the Taliban and the
Ba'athist regime of Hussein cling to power by infusing their people with
hatred, hatred of Americans, hatred of Jews and Christians, hatred of
freedom, and hatred of anyone that dares oppose their total control of
power. After years and years of only knowing hatred, it is not surprising
that some of these people are driven to acts of unspeakable evil and
destruction, acts like those visited upon America on September 11th.
When America and the rest of the free world look into the face of this evil
and hatred, it is understandable that we look with great fear and
trepidation. Indeed, when we look into the eyes of the fanatic, we must
surely wonder if it is even possible to defeat such an enemy, an enemy that
knows not reason, and knows only hate. We must constantly remind
ourselves, however, that victory is possible. We must remember that
hatred most certainly can be defeated. It is possible because we have done
it once before.
Sixty years ago, there were two great wellsprings of hatred in the world,
Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Two of the mightiest fighting armies in
the world were fueld by the fires of hatred, hatred for those of a
different religion, hatred for those of the wrong color, hatred for
everyone who was not like themselves. In one country, an entire populus
stood by as the most systematic extermination of another people that was
ever imagined was carried out. In another country, there was no shortage
of volunteers for suicide bombing missions against Americans, the kamikaze
who first conceived of using an airplane as a weapon of mass destruction.
Yet, sixty years later, both Germany and Japan declared the attacks of
September 11th on America to be attacks on themselves, and offerred
whatever support they could provide to America under their respective
Constitutions. In just sixty years, peoples that had once been filled
with hatred were crying with America in her sorrow, while placing flowers
at her embassies to comfort her in her grief.
Back in 1940, Americans believed that we could live peacefully while hatred
and injustice sprung forth in from the far corners of the globe. Then, as
now, we were wrong. So long as one man lives in bondage, none of us are
truly free. Inevitably, the enemies of freedom will come for us. They
came once on December 7th, 1941. They came again on September 11th, 1941.
After Pearl Harbor drew the United States into World War II, however, we
did not satisfy ourselves with simply bringing criminals to justice. We
did not end our efforts with trials in Manila, Tokyo, and Nuremberg.
Instead, we stayed behind long after the fighting had stopped. We stayed
behind to teach their people democracy. We stayed behind to spend billions
of dollars rebuilding their very countries that we he had destroyed. We
stayed behind and pledged the lives our very own soldiers to the future
defence of their country, soldiers who sixty years later are still there
defending those who were once our sworn enemies.
Now, as the first great war of the 21st Century begins, I think that those
lessons of sixty years ago make it clear what must be required of us today.
We must ensure that this is not a war of vengeance, nor a war of
retaliation, nor even a war of self-defence - even if all three of those
goals will surely be accomplished. Primarily, however, we must ensure
that there is an even deeper and more noble motivation for this war.
It must be a war of liberation.
It must be a war of love.
If we do not, then this will almost certainly be a war that America will
lose. Against hatred, all of our guns, our bombs, our missiles, and our
planes will be worse than useless. While they may strike a few of the
terrorists themselves, the hatred that they strike will only be made
stronger by the destruction that is wrought. From that hatred, for every
terrorist that we strike, two more will spring to life in their place.
Against hatred there is only one adequate weapon. That weapon is love, the
same love that we showed for the Europeans and the Japanese at the end of
the Second World War. It is love that lets the victims know that we too
care about their plight, and love that will compell us to build a better
life for them and for their children. It will be love that will keep the
people from rising up against us, and instead have them rise up with us for
their own liberation. Our quarrel is with the evil regimes that support
terorism in any way, and not with the people that are oppressed by them.
Do not misunderstand me, massive military action will certainly be
required. The places of the world controlled by the likes of the Taliban
and Saddam Hussein have no interest in learning democracy, they have no
interest in American dollars making a better life for their people, and
they have no interest in the love of the free world. The governments of
hate that control these lands will have to be destroyed, just as we
destroyed the governments of Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito before them.
The military strikes that will crush these regimes, however, are but one
mission in a wider war. Winning the war, though, will depend on other
missions that are as equally important to our ultimate victory as any
military strike, missions that are governed by some ancient imperatives:
We must feed the hungry.
We must clothe the naked.
We must house the homeless.
We must give hope to the hopeless.
We must set the captives free.
The success of America and our Allies in this great war will ultimately be
dependant on whether our justice truly is infinite. It will depend on
whether we can see the same essential spark of humanity in the suffering
Afghani people that we see in the suffering people of New York. In that
great city, this tragedy brought out the very best of America in an
outpouring of love for the victims that has united together hundreds of
millions of every race, creed, and belief. It is time for the people of
Afghanistan to see not the evil caricature of the USA painted by the
Taliban regime, but the very best of the USA - a tremendous outpouring of
love for a fellow people in need. Being at our best, even as so many
emotions of anger, anguish, and fear course through our veins will always
be a challenge, but it was a challenge that our forefathers ably met half a
century ago, and one that I have every hope we will meet again today.
The war of love has begun.
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"Freedom itself was attacked today, and Freedom will be Defended."
-U.S. President George W. Bush, 09/11/01
