You can't bring peace through warlike actions. You bring peace through peaceful actions.
I believe President Bush is driven by competitive impulses. He believes, as do most Americans, that competition is the number one gift God bestowed on America. As a competitor, Bush tells the world, we in America know what is good for us and for the world. We are right and need not worry about what other nations say. We are "good" fighting "evil." We know that if we can make Iraq a democracy we can transform all the other nations in the Middle East. Once that is done, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will dissolve The world will be free of terrorism.
This is a delusion. I have felt this way for a long time. Now I see that commentator Jonathan Power agrees with me. In his op-ed piece in today's L.A. Times, he demonstrates that when a world power becomes very big and begins emphasizing mainly military might, it is the beginning of the end. This is what happened to the Ottoman Empire. It is likely to happen to us.
And then Power says,
"Neither does it help to imply, as both Bush and Blair have done, that the West is motivated by its Christian principles. Christ, in marked contrast to Muhammad, was a man of nonviolence, as were his early followers."
When Christians became violent during the Crusades, they did not accomplish anything good.
Powers is hopeful, though. He feels that Islam is now ready for a renaissance and that we should welcome it.
Encouraging a renaissance is a much better way to bring peace than by fighting. How should the U.S. do it? Not be imposing our will. Not by a unilateral approach to world affairs. Not by disdaining our allies. Not by working against the UN. Not by fighting.
Instead of a competitive approach to world affairs we need to adopt a cooperative approach. Let us cooperate with other governments in obtaining the best intelligence. Let us cooperate with our allies to get them to work with us to produce a peaceful Iraq. Let us work as equal partners with Muslim countries in economic projects that will benefit them as much as us. Let us be more generous with economic and other aid to extremely poor countries. Let us work together with all nations to make the UN the peacekeeping force it was intended to be.
Competition produces aggression, conflict, violence and terrorism. Cooperation produces understanding, harmony, respect and peace.
Let us perform peaceful acts in order to produce world peace.
