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Saturday February 15, 2003

Anne attended the protest in New York today. She emailed cloudcuckooland with this question:

Any thoughts on day's events?

I replied:

While I share (and respect) your aversion to war, I don't agree with you that there is a choice between war and no war. To me, the choice is more between big war and small war....between war here or war there....war we lose or war we win.

War has been declared and is already being fought around the world. (Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, India, Lebanon/Syria, Israel/Palestinians, Nigeria, Algeria, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Chechnya, Russia...just a partial list of the battle fields where people are killing today). Oh yeah, New York, DC, etc etc.

This is why I don't see a "no war" option. It isn't on the menu.

What can we do to end the killing?

We must give the killers convincing reasons to stop.

My thought on the events of the day is that the protests give the killers reasons to continue...and to escalate. The more effective that anti-war movement becomes, the more people will die. So, despite my dissatisfaction with the way our government is proceeding, I did not protest today.

I wish that those who wish to promote peace would seriously look for solutions rather than merely condemn imperfect policies. Looking for answers requires learning about events. When people believe that they have the answers, they are no longer looking. That incuriosity endangers us all.