We're not afraid (?)

War is wrong because it is war

Violence is wrong because it is violence

The terrible has already happened. R.D. Laing
Hiroshima. Nagasaki. Cain and Abel. When did we go down this inhuman path? Or is violence all too human?
Violence like war must become an idea whose very mention evokes a strong disgust. Like cannibalism. Yet we are so immersed in violent culture at every level of our social being that only a new step in our evolution could transform us.
I do not want to minimise the pain and sorrow of any of the London victims. (Or the We're not afraid campaign. See: http://www.werenotafraid.com/). I am only asking myself if there is not a certain hypocrisy in the huge amount of attention- or rather the small amount of attention that the daily bombings in Iraq are not having.
In any situation in which conflict is resolved by resorting to the use of force, or the threat of force, the final resolution will be determined by the means used to arrive at that end. Means determine ends.

Whether it is Black Block, Uncle Sam, Jihad or Big Daddy, the use of power and force is the easy choice. The litmus test of any strategy or policy can always be considered under the light of this simple formula: is it coercive, or is it collaborative? Could we have collaborated with Saddam? (I’m hearing those voices already!) Yes: we can only collaborate if we want to achieve peace. What if we had sent to the mid-east an “army” of tens of thousands of artists, poets, writers, musicians, doctors, sociologists, psychologists, children, elders, scientists, builders, etc., all crashing the borders with magic-ray zappers of love and respect. What if……

Care as much about each other as about yourselves...Never pay back evil for evil... If your enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink...Do not let evil conquer you, but use good to defeat evil. (Romans 12:16-21)