SPEAKING
FREELY Intersections of peace and
war Dallas Darling
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
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When Arsala Rahmani,
a former Taliban official who reconciled with the
Afghan government and was an active member of the
Afghan Peace Council, was assassinated by gunmen
at an intersection in Kubal, it brought back
memories of other intersections pertaining to
understanding and conflict, of other historical
intersections concerning peace and war. The
important junctions of peace and war that come to
mind were during the 1980s, which served as a
crucial time in America's history.
Already
there were some junctures with clear warning
signs, signs that pointed to disaster. Still,
there were other uncontrolled
intersections where it
seemed that the rules of law and the politics of
compassion and justice were missing.
When
the emergency call came, we were startled to hear
that another youth minister, one that had
dedicated his life to assisting the poor and
oppressed and had established a very effective
after-school program in inner city San Francisco,
had just been "car-jacked" at an intersection. We
were even more shocked to discover how about
fifteen youths, anywhere from the ages of eight to
15, had surrounded him, dragged him from his
vehicle, and beat senselessly kicked and beat him
with baseball bats, chains, and brass knuckles.
Although he eventually recovered and returned to
establishing neighborhood intersections of healing
and forgiveness, junctures of schooling and
helping to meet economic needs, the other violent
intersection would forever have a dominant impact.
It was 1981, and America was experiencing
a major juncture in its history. Support for
social programs, like Social Security, Medicare
and Medicaid, and health programs for the elderly,
poor, handicapped, and children, were about to be
cut, siphoned-off by an acting president, the
wealthy elite, and powerful corporations.
Ultraconservatism, unrestrained militarism, and a
first-strike nuclear weapons policy was triumphing
over popular New Deal programs. Fearing an
invasion by a tiny nation, Nicaragua, terrorists
were being trained to attack defenseless farms and
Christian Base Communities, thought to be too
leftist. A reactionary dream team sold crack in
the streets, so as to buy weapons and to secretly
fund illegal wars around the world.
While
other internal intersections of violence, like
ignoring the AIDS epidemic, since it was thought
the great majority of initial victims were gay
men, clash with junctures of peace, such as the
Homeless Movement that attempted to provide
shelter to a forgotten populace, North-South
intersections of war and peace are colliding. In
El Salvador, the US-trained Atlacatl Battalion
methodologically beheads 200 innocent civilians
worshipping in a church. While Catholic nuns are
raped and murdered and Jesuit priests
assassinated, Honduras becomes another militarized
intersection to launch more preemptive wars
throughout Central America. In Guatemala,
thousands of protesters are beaten, tortured and
killed with US weaponry. Human rights activists
disappear.
A kind of surreal, apocalyptic,
end of the world dualism again intersects with
Americans. Reaganites, backed by televangelists,
proclaim God is on the side of the West. The East
consists of wickedness empires, rogue nations, and
terrorists. The US counters these fantasies by
encouraging Iraq's strongman to invade Iran, even
supplying chemical- biological weaponry that is
used to kill thousands. Lebanon becomes another
militarized juncture too. Israel, supported by
billions of dollars of American military aid, is
an uncontrollable intersection of military
incursions into Palestinian lands. Just before
bombing Tripoli and killing more civilians,
President Ronald Reagan claimed German and Nazi SS
troops were victims, just as surely as the victims
in the concentration camps.
And then there
was, and still is, Afghanistan. Afghanistan became
another juncture of the globalization of American
power and violence, of might makes right, of
wanting to retaliate against the East. In Islamic
history, jihad as an international violent
phenomenon had for all practical purposes
disappeared in the last 400 years, until it was
resurrected, until it intersected with American
military extremists, ultraconservative Reaganites,
and religious fanatics. The US saw a God-sent
opportunity to mobilize and militarily train one
billion Muslims against godless communism, or what
President Reagan called the Evil Empire. The CIA
crisscrossed the Muslim world looking for
recruits. Osama bin Laden was one of the first
prize recruits. [1]
But intersections of
violence and war often backfire, sometimes
uncontrollably and frenziedly, as was witnessed on
September 11, 2001. They continue to not go as
planned too, as when the United States, under the
banners of preemptive wars, invaded and militarily
occupied both Afghanistan and Iraq. It is not
wonder, then, that on May 14 an assassin armed
with a silenced pistol shot dead Rahmani. He had
attempted to help establish junctures of peace,
appointed by the Afghan Peace Council to try an
convince Afghan insurgent leaders to reconcile
with the government. It is a difficult task,
though, since many Taliban believe the Afghan
government is a puppet of the US, and since
Taliban insurgents are still being imprisoned and
tortured at the American Guantanamo prison camp.
Intersections of violence and war are
political and economic problems. They are the
sworn enemies of intersections of peace and
reconciliation. Americans must learn to recognize
hazardous signs and signals, or warning signs, in
order to help prevent more militarized and deadly
intersections between North and South, West and
East, and, of course, within their own national
boundaries.
Note: 1.
Ahmad, Eqbal. Terrorism: Theirs And Ours. New
York, New York: Seven Stories Press, 2001, p 22.
Dallas Darling is the author
of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on
Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some
Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On
Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, and
Consumerism in the Context of John's Apocalyptic
Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity:
Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality,
History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for
www.worldnews.com.
Speaking Freely
is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest
writers to have their say.Please
click hereif you are interested in
contributing. Articles submitted for this section
allow our readers to express their opinions and do
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