Both America’s democracy and Islam’s faith must find a moral path to this conflict or both institutions will perish in sea of blood and tears where there has been too much of blood and tears already.
I am uncommitted activist and Iowa caucus goer because of George W Bush. He raised the bar (standards) and then flunked the exam. Every citizen has a duty to find America the better policies than the ones Bush has given us. This is the easy part. The hard part is repairing Bush’s failures. This diary entry is my part in a moral act of war against terrorism.
I am a martial artist in both t’ai chi ch’aun and aikido. I understand war and it‘s moral costs all too well. Fighting is wrong but if you must fight for a just outcome.
Our troops understand the cost of war for they fight this war’s daliy contradictions in a way none of us could possibily understand. For every action of violence a warrior takes means a little bit of humanity is lost in the fight. No nation nor faith can escape a violent civil war without social change and this war in Iraq is changing America and both Sunni and Shia Islam for the worse.
There is something better than war, something beyond war, a moral equivalent of war. A martial discipline that makes war less likely. Many centuries ago Islam knew this idea well. So did America Bush just got us to forget with a historic mass media blitz. It is was a lie. We are now in bloody civil war.
Look at the great civil wars in history like Japan’s Onin War or England’s Civil War between the loyalist Catholics and Protestant parliamentarians and think about the social changes those wars wrought. Japan closed it’s doors for 200 years because Onin War and it’s lessons. The lessons of English Civil War gave America the first Amendment and North Ireland a violent mess England still lives with today. Once trust is broken the wounds can forever to heal. The Sunni-Shia Iraq Civil War is being fertilized with American blood and like it or not America needs a long-term resolution. No cookie cutter policies or political slogans will work. Humanity can’t escape tomorrow without facing today. To Joe Biden’s credit his plan is the only workable idea I have heard on Iraq but the Shite-led Iraqi government won’t see reason because their faith or should I say hate blinds them to compromise their power. This proves faith and hate are oil and water because there always some fool willing to light a match, toss it and kaboom!
We have problems before us that are unprecedented in human history. Some of you reading this diary believe as I believe we have entered a period where grave change is needed. Some people think Bush saddled up the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse let them out of the barn. I heard Senator Edwards speak in Iowa City yesterday. He gets it but a reality gap remains. He is the best of a good field in my view but we disagree.
For instance I disagree with Senator Edwards about the GOP nominee. Some Republicans want a Bush on steroids but they can’t buy or sell it to America. The GOP might field a little Bush mini-me clone. Bush weakened the Oval Office with his puerility. Nobody can out do Bush’s mess but I have been wrong before. McCain, Romney and Guliani are not Bush but they all want to be a new Reagan. No Republican whether he is Reagan, Lincoln or Roosevelt would want Iraq. It is a historic mess. Any Bush GOP replacement will be an increasingly powerless authoritarian conservative equal to or worse than the immoral executive circus we currently have because Bush and the GOP have ignored the critical facts for far too long. The tipping point is long since gone.
I won’t ask people running for President to take on Horseman called Death but there are Republican (and even one or two Democratic candidates) who think they’re Ronald Reagan’s (or FDR’s) reincarnation or worse they have an ego the size of a small deity and can repeal the law of gravity. It is about them and not America’s future. President Bush 2004 political victory raised the stakes for the Democrat Party because if Democrats lose 2008 then the Democratic Party will split for a more effective political strategy and tactics.
Look at the GOP it is a mess. They invited social conservatives in, gave them power and what do you know they misapplied ideology in the most fog filled and dangerous of all endeavors: War. They used supply side thinking fight a war on the cheap side instead of the right way.
We need a moral social equivalent of the war for terror because if America fights it with puerile policies we will only deepen our democracy’s dilemmas and raise the cost to America’s children for many decades to come. We have given our children the gift of the most dangerous world yet.
America’s future come to a better end because no child should pay for the last generation’s sins. If I were a candidate would speak for the defense of my children, their future and their country more than I would fight for my personal beliefs, hopes and ambitions because I value the next generation’s world more than I value my own life. No one can doubt a parent’s love for a child or a person’s love of country and Earth.
What people love and fear are tells a lot about who they what they are. Shed your fear, you will not fear the loss of face, power or influence. You will be an ultimate warrior capable of the most moral of acts. This political race is moral act of war for me because I have say in how MY COUNTRY FIGHTS IT WARS!!! Because I love my country and fear the direction America has choosen.
The next leader of this nation has to be honest and has to have a fearless integrity. How we fight our problems matter. America has a Grand Canyon size reality gap between our ideals and the facts.
Integrity is the greatest power an American President can have and President Bush has none except with those of blind faith. Speaking of faith my faithful heart is married to a reasonable mind and a 2008 Republican victory would cause the most violent divorce of my heart and mind.
Democrats will decide who the next American President is. Nothing will create great change quicker in America than a new and effective Democratic executive leader in the White House.
Leadership is more than telling people what to do. It is showing them how to get how to get where they want to go. Show America don’t tell America. I like to put it, put up or shut up.
The next U.S. President can only give America a road map but Americans must decide on the road to travel. Where is your candidate’s road map to a lasting peace and better tomorrow? If world knows what I know then Islamic terrorism is the least of our worries. There is no moral equivalent to what America currently does.
We authorize warrantless wiretaps, suspended habeas corpus, condoned torture and turned the National Security resources on average Americans. We are not safer or more moral. We have become what we fight.