BRING
HEALING to help us see beyond our own self-interests;
to help understand "others;"
to ourselves, to act in ways that don't provoke angers, hatereds, violence
against ourselves - as their "others"
This is a challenge, because the ways of mankind throughout recorded history
have favored "an eye for an eye," a policy that ultimately leaves
everyone blind and maimed... and the cycle of revenge and hurt and anger
and ever-so-justified counter-revenge continues...
Here are some of the problems:
Chris
Floyd
Metanexus views, 2002.09.09
Religious perversion:
the implacable, impenetrable conviction that absolute truth is in your
sole possession. You are good, favored by God; your enemies are evil,
demonic. Tribalism (or in civilized terms, nationalism, patriotism): the
belief that your country, your people, your grievances,your interests
are above all others, that your values are so important that sometimes
innocent people have to be sacrificed to them. Lust for power: the burning
desire to impose your will on the whole world - or failing that, to bring
the whole world crumbling down around you.
And a falling-out. The White House points the finger of blame at Osama
Bin Laden - a demon made to order, right out of central casting, remorseless,
demented, crafty, rich. Like Saddam Hussein - another sinister figure
suspected of collusion in this week's horror - Bin Laden was once empowered
by America itself. The same intelligence services that now stand blind,
struck and wounded, cynically embraced these brutal renegades as pawns
in the Great Game of geopolitics; embraced them, armed them, paid them,
built them up into autonomous powers - then, like Dr. Frankenstein, lost
controlof their creatures. The used became the users, and in Iraq, Iran,
Kuwait, Afghanistan - and now, New York and Washington - they have killed
their thousands, and their tens of thousands.
In the name of religion. In the service of patriotism. In the lust for
power - to project their dominance.
This is not a new evil. It's as old as the hills, and is with us always.
But atrocity tends
to raze the ground of history. In the aftermath, with the cries of lamentation
rising over fresh graves, it is always Zero Hour. "That which happened"
- to borrow the poet Paul Celan's phrase for the Nazi's unspeakable crimes
- buries what came before, effaces the paths that led us to this place,
strips away the cloak of reason (a thin rag in the best of times), and
leaves nothing but the bare, anguished call for revenge.
So the leaders, the blind men, assemble. They call urgently for war -
against someone, somewhere; they cannot say who, because they cannot see.
The intelligence services are put to work - perhaps they will find a new
pawn to turn on the one that has turned against them; someone new to embrace,
arm, pay, empower. Perhaps the missiles will streak and the bomb bays
will open indiscriminately, as before. Or perhaps it will be left to assassins,
surgeons of death who will use the terrorist's own treacherous weapons
of surprise and deceit to destroy the culprits - and the inevitable "collaterals."
Blood will have blood;
that's certain. But blood will not end it. For murder is fertile: it breeds
more death, like a spider laden with a thousand eggs. And who now can
break this cycle, which has been going on for generations? Past folly
undoes us, but who, in the Zero Hour, can ignore the lamentations? Who
can deny the ghosts, these loved ones gone, the red food demanded by the
dead?
There is no answer. It will not stop. They say the world has now changed irreversibly, that nothing will ever be the same. But it will be the same. The same engines of hatred, the same murk, the same dirt, the same mixed matter in human brains.
This is not a new
evil. It's as old as the hills, and it is with us always.
More
America has been acting unilaterally, without consulting other nations,
breaking treaties, and disregarding international law. Our actions are
now more overtly those of a nation that feels it is so powerful that it
is above and beyond the need of other nations' consent or assistance in
dealing with terrorism - but we have covertly been acting on these presumptions
for many years.
The US is now a threat to the rest of the world. The sensible response
is non-cooperation
George Monbiot
There is something almost comical about the prospect of George Bush waging
war on another nation because that nation has defied international law.
Since Bush came to office, the United States government has torn up more
international treaties and disregarded more UN conventions than the rest
of the world has in 20 years.
It has scuppered the biological weapons convention while experimenting,
illegally, with biological weapons of its own. It has refused to grant
chemical weapons inspectors full access to its laboratories, and has destroyed
attempts to launch chemical inspections in Iraq. It has ripped up the
anti-ballistic missile treaty, and appears to be ready to violate the
nuclear test ban treaty. It has permitted CIA hit squads to recommence
covert operations of the kind that included, in the past, the assassination
of foreign heads of state. It has sabotaged the small arms treaty, undermined
the international criminal court, refused to sign the climate change protocol
and, last month, sought to immobilise the UN convention against torture
so that it could keep foreign observers out of its prison camp in Guantanamo
Bay. Even its preparedness to go to war with Iraq without a mandate from
the UN security council is a defiance of international law far graver
than Saddam Hussein's non-compliance with UN weapons inspectors.
But the US government's declaration of impending war has, in truth, nothing
to do with weapons inspections. On Saturday John Bolton, the US official
charged, hilariously, with "arms control," told the Today programme
that "our policy ... insists on regime change in Baghdad and that
policy will not be altered, whether inspectors go in or not". The
US government's justification for whupping Saddam has now changed twice.
At first,Iraq was named as a potential target because it was "assisting
al-Qaida." This turned out to be untrue. Then the US government claimed
that Iraq had to be attacked because it could be developing weapons of
mass destruction, and was refusing to allow the weapons inspectors to
find out if this were so. Now, as the promised evidence has failed to
materialise, the weapons issue has been dropped. The new reason for war
is Saddam Hussein's very existence. This, at least, has the advantage
of being verifiable.
It should surely be obvious by now that the decision to wage war on Iraq
came first, and the justification later...
More
Others are beginning to echo the same observations about US foreign policies.
The United States of
America is a Threat to World Peace
by Nelson Mandela
In a rare interview, the South African demands that George W. Bush win
United Nations support before attacking Iraq
Newsweek, September 10, 2002
(Link
no longer active)
We, as a nation, are not innocent victims. The wealthiest 20% of humanity consumes 86% of total products and services, while the poorest 20% consumes only 1.3%. The US is by far the largest consumer of world resources. While we have extended help to other nations, we have exacted a price for our help, bringing them into global markets and global debts from which they cannot extract themselves. Many of our manufacturers get cheap clothing and other products from sweat shops that would not be legal on our own shores.
The wounds cannot heal if we continue these policies.
Our global village must develop global policies that are mutually healing rather than exploitative.
What can we do to heal these challenging problems at the roots of 9-11?
If you feel these problems are beyond your abilities to heal them, you are in good company. No one person could possibly heal such complex problems.
You can, however, contribute your measure of healing to move these problems toward better solutions.
Take a few moments, send your healing wishes, meditate, or pray for healing for our planet...
Know
that violence is the root of all miseries in the world. Violence, in fact,
is the knot of bondage.
- Jainist Prayer of Peace
Next - Your healing can transform problems