War and Peace

The picture of the plane swooping through the sky and smashing into the glass tower and then exploding has become a defining moment of the 21st century. We witnessed that moment together through the power and global availability of live television coverage. This one defining image is horrific and all too Real. What we know of the world is presented to us through the filters of the mass media.

One of the hardest things for people to do is to examine themselves and admit their own problems. The same holds true for this country, as a nation. America’s image of itself can be found in its history, its symbolism, and its founding myths that depend on our views of other people. This becomes a problem when we know people, ideas, civilizations, religions, cultures, and histories as something they are not, and when we maintain these ideas even when the means exist to know differently.

In “Why Do People Hate America?” by Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies, they write : “If America refuses to reflect upon its history, its uses and abuses of power and wealth at home and abroad, the consequences of its lifestyle and abundance, the relations between quality of life and values, the relation between ideals and practical application of those ideals to ALL of its own people, then what chance has the rest of the world of engaging America in reasoned discussion?” We are not living in a vacuum here in America, but until September 11, 2001, it certainly seemed so to the rest of the world. Are we Americans so insulated from the rest of the world that we refuse to examine ourselves and how others must see us?

The point is, that terror can have an American incarnation, that hatred is not an exclusive preserve of only one kind of group or society. People in America wonder why so many other people in the rest of the world seem to hate Americans. The United States is perceived correctly as the incarnation of a dominant world system - an empire of capitalism and democracy. Anyone in the world who looks at his lot and is unhappy, looks at us and sees an alternative. If he has an aspiration for a better life, he may try to come here or imitate us. If he has anger about his lot in life, he will hold us responsible. If he has the resources of a hostile nation, or its functional equivalent, he may try to kill us. The success of American democracy and capitalism, the disparity between ourselves and others, and the perception that we just do not care about the plight of others in the world, are the real sources of hatred.

Many of the anti-war protesters are no better than those that support the war in Iraq. Many of them use violence, destroy property, fight with each other and with police, and scream about their ideals… with little regard for how their actions are impacting others. They are just as extremist as the other side of the argument, and I feel ashamed for humanity’s sake when I see people behaving like this when they are supposed to be in favor of peace. They need to understand that meeting hatred with hatred and violence with violence only creates more terror, not peace. They show me through their violent anti-war protests that they truly do not understand peace.

Maybe if I had not grown up during the Vietnam War, if I hadn’t seen the devastation of a country and the permanent damage to a people and a land,… maybe if I hadn’t been through the air raid drills, the red alerts, and seen the horrible effects of war on returning veterans and on the families of those who did not return from that war, I wouldn’t believe so strongly in peace. Don’t get me wrong, I am a disabled veteran, I served honorably for my country, I lost the sight of one of my eyes while in that service… I am a patriotic American… but… must we continually weep over dead bodies before we figure out that this is wrong?