There are 1.57 billion Muslims in the world. It is mind bendingly stupid to blame over a billion people for the actions of a select few. It is not only inaccurate, it is morally reprehensible and wrong.
To some this may be an analytical argument they're making but I go to a Mosque by Trolley Square and I know some of the people there by name. They are good people. And these people are just that-people. They are every bit as human as you or I. But like all people, there are the good and the evil. The real problem arises when you think that any one group of people is either one or the other.
So though I understand the need to hold those responsible for the Paris attacks accountable I feel that we should hold only those individuals who carried out the attacks responsible, or the organization of ISIS itself. Because now is not the time for vengeance that will lead us into yet another war. We cannot afford in anyway yet another war. We cannot, apparently, afford to care for the millions of mentally and physically wounded service members who fought it or are still fighting it. We cannot afford to feed the hungry, care for the sick without inflicting crushing debt, and we are in trillions of dollars in debt to China. We can in no way afford another war.
If we could bomb our way into peace we would be living in a utopia by now. Killing leads to more killing, leads to more killing, because those who live by the sword die by the sword.
America is a nation that is 239 years old and we have been at war for 222 of them or about 93% of the time. If war leads to peace then where oh where is our peace? Where is our Pax Americana?For those who are lost at that reference the Pax Romana, or Roman Peace, is a Latin term referring to the Empire in its glorified prime. From the end of the Republican civil wars, beginning with the accession of Augustus in 27 BC, this era in Roman history lasted until 180 AD and the death of Marcus Aurelius. So 207 years of relative peace.The Roman Empire's rise is debatable but many feel that it wasn't an empire until after the second Punic war in about 201BC. And Rome, arguably, fell in 476AD. Though many claim a portion of it survived as the Byzantine Empire which lasted from 330AD when Constantine established a "New Rome" at the site of an Ancient Greek colony at Byzantium. It fell in 1453.So how one defines Roman Empire dictates the answer. Let's say it lasted from 201 BC to 476AD. Then 207 of its 677 year history was lived in peace.So why is it that one of the most bloodthirsty and warlike empires in human history knew more peace than we have? Here's my belief; "Because it's always the same. When you fire that first shot no matter how you feel, you have no idea who's going to die! You don't know whose children are going to scream and burn! Or how many Hearts will be broken. Or how many lives will be shattered! Or how much blood will spill until everybody does what they were always going to have to do from the beginning...sit down and talk."If we go to war now all that will change is the number of people, men, women, children who will burn, die, or be to tortured until we sit down and talk. How many lives are worth our refusal to do the inevitable? Many would argue that you can't reason with or negotiate with terrorists but had we done so before invading Iraq, ISIS likely would not have formed. It's not a matter of dealing with a servant who must be decapitated because we are dealing with a hydra. The more we kill, the more enemies we make.These terrorists have no armies comparable to that of even the smallest nations. They can't ever win tactically or win the hearts and mind unless we fall on ourselves and rob ourselves of our precious liberties in the name of preserving our safety and those sold off liberties. "Those who would surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one." -Benjamin FranklinAnd once we give up our liberties piece by piece, then we will be living under tyranny every bit as evil as the countries that harbor these terrorists. We can only destroy ourselves and only we can rob ourselves of our liberties.And the more bigotry and hate we fill Islamic communities in our countries with, the more those who sympathize with ISIS and groups like them, get to say I told you so. This is what they are truly like. And it continues to feed into the narrative of ISIS and groups like them. If we fall we will have rotted ourselves from the inside out. This puny little band of sociopaths will not have victory over us in any other way.We need to scrutinize the plans for war with the same intensity as congress did to planned parenthood, or Hillary Clinton's emails, or Benghazi. Maybe then we wouldn't rush into yet another war with no exit strategy or specific enemy. Just the vague war on terror. Which could mean anything and anyone. The beauty of that logic is that because it could apply to so many people and groups it's flat out designed to be perpetual, to live forever.How many lives must be lost, how much killing is worth it, to feel justified?Peace may not succeed, but as a veteran who has seen so many bear the brunt and burden of war, I say it is better to fail at peace than win in war. War may be a necessary evil, but make no mistake it is always evil. These are attacks, there is no invading army on our shores, an army of Syrian refugees perhaps who are looking to escape from the very people who launched this attack, but we are not facing an enemy capable of butchering millions of people. They can't tactically pull that off or they would have. I am not saying the attacks was insignificant. I'm saying we need to think before we let our grief or anger drive us into yet another war. Governments in terms of leadership are rarely affected by war. War is a burden borne by young kids who looked for a way to pay for college, or a good job with healthcare, or to do something more important with their lives than the jobs out there offered.War isn't Hell. War is war and Hell is Hell. And of the two war is worse. How so? Easy, who goes to Hell? Sinners? Exactly my point. In Hell there are no innocent bystanders. War is full of them unarmed men, women, children, the disabled and the elderly. In fact, with the exception of some of the brass, everyone involved in war is an innocent bystander.The Syrian refugees are a perfect example of this. They are fleeing ISIS and no one cared because it didn't affect them. Now ISIS affects them and now it's a problem.War is a tragedy that is at the core of the human condition. Wars have shaped history. So this is yet another turning point. And the only variable is how many people have to die before we suck it up and do what we were always going to have to do. Negotiate with, perhaps even love, our enemies.
