Views from Eagle Peak » War and Peace

Remembering 9/11

Jack — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 20:04:39 +0000

I was in my cubicle, in the Fairfax County Government Center, 30 miles from the Pentagon. I was hard at work on the FY 2003 budget for my agency, the Division of Solid Waste, Collection and Recycling. Then came news of the first attack. Only nobody knew it was an attack when the first plane hit. Only after the second came, did that become clear. The director was out of the office so somebody turned on the TV in his office (there for viewing Board of Supervisor meetings, etc., not for soaps). I wandered in and out, while others spent much time in there. Then came news of the other hijacked plane, heading for a destination unknown, but in the DC area. I went back to work; the budget had a deadline and it was my job. Then came the blast at the Pentagon. Right where my wife of nearly 21 years would have been working had she got the promotion she bitterly resented not getting a few years before. She worked with many of the people in the section that took the brunt of the damage. The man who got the job she missed, died in the attack. Karma is unfathomable. It seemed at the time, when she lost out on the job, that she got screwed. In the end, it turns out she had other tasks to accomplish–a mission still to unfold. We credit our Buddhist practice for the result.

For a brief time the events of 9/11 forged a more compassionate, a more cooperative spirit among Americans. The honeymoon lasted only a short while. Given a broad mandate to retaliate and to impose draconian security measures in an attempt to protect the nation, George W. Bush made the lasting impressions on our country. We endure ever more intrusive inspections in order to be permitted to fly. Thousands of patriotic young men and women quickly volunteered for military service. Many of them have died and others continue to die in a ten-year old war in Afghanistan–initiated to locate and kill Osama Bin Laden, which wound up taking almost all of those years. It didn’t help that resources were diverted to also fight in Iraq, a handy way to take attention away from the fact that Bin Laden could not be found. If enemy number 1 could not be dealt with, at least we could rid the world of another evil man. Then there was the pretext of weapons of mass destruction, which did not exist. All of which also cost many American lives and many American dollars–which, along with across the board tax cuts (especially for the ultra-wealthy), have major responsibility for our present financial straits. So, while Bin Laden succeeded in killing several thousand people in those attacks 10 years ago, his and George W’s legacy has had a much more serious, long-lasting and continuing legacy than either could have imagined at the time.

More than ever, we all need to remember the sacrifices of those who died on 9/11 and as a result of the aftermath. More than that, we need to rekindle the compassion and cooperation that briefly enveloped America. While I may (rightly, I believe) point fingers at Bush, that won’t make life in America any better for me or anyone else. What is needed is tolerance and understanding. Tolerance of those whose religion, whose culture, whose values differ from our own. Understanding that the security of the nation lies not in more onerous invasions of privacy but in more openness to alternatives in religion and politics. For myself, praying every day for the peace and security of the land, as Nichiren Daishonin admonished 750 years ago, in a letter to the regent of Japan.

Norway’s Massacre

Jack — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 21:01:13 +0000

It’s been a month now, and a memorial service held. Too late to comment much, except to echo the comments of the Prime Minister from a month ago–and I paraphrase, keep Norway open. In other words, no draconian security measures to be imposed. No restrictions on the borders to keep out Muslims, as the right-wing killer wished in his opposition to multiculturalsim. It is uncomfortable, disconcerting and difficult to deal with those who are “different.” Different in the way they dress, speak, worship, etc. But keeping them out–out of sight and out of mind won’t make any country, any locale, a safer or better place. I had intended to contrast the Scandinavian approach to the American approach, but will save that for another time.

Waiting for Westmoreland now on iTunes

Jack — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 15:35:20 +0000

Shameless self-promotion: you can download Waiting for Westmoreland as an epub now for $8.99. Go here if you have an iPad, etc. with which to view it and are so inclined. If you don’t know about WFW, hit the last item in the links to your right.

Also, belatedly, if you had a comment that was trashed erroneously (i.e., you are not a spammer) try submitting it again and I will review what comes in for integrity. I had to do a lot of bulk deletions to clean up this blog.

Prosecute them

Jack — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:56:16 +0000

I voted for him. I support him on most things. But Obama is so wrong to avoid prosecuting those who tortured suspected terrorists. The US has been actively involved in prosecuting people throughout the world for the same kinds of deeds done for purposes allegedly fair but more often admittedly foul. The fact that others could honestly say they were following orders or had the authorization of superiors did not inoculate them from prosecution. Oh, but we are the good guys. We were aggrieved. We were just trying to protect ourselves. No! It is not a legitimate defense; it is pure sophistry. Yes, it is certainly arguable (and I would be one to so argue) that those most deserving of punishment are those that wrote the specious legal opinions and offered the guidance that the torture was OK. Their crimes are more reprehensible than those of the interrogaters whose hands poured the water over cloth covered faces or slammed people into walls using plastic collar grips. There is an especially hot (or perhaps icy cold, to match his heart) hell awaiting Dick Cheney; but I don’t hold my breath that he will suffer any legal harm in this lifetime. While the laws of society may fail, the law of cause and effect never does. For the sake of our society, those who tortured should be punished. Those who authorized it will be–sooner or later.

Gaza Strip and Vietnam

Jack — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:24:09 +0000

Way back when, during the Vietnam War, there were areas designated as “free fire zones.” Those were pieces of land that the U.S. military described to the locals, via air-dropped fliers in Vietnamese language, as subject to automatic weapon or artillery fire without asking questions. In the old Wild West parlance, “shoot first and ask questions later,” only in this case no questions were asked. The purpose was to clear an area of Viet Cong, the communist guerrillas that were the focus of U.S. military combat. The problem was that they blended in, indistinguishably, with the local population. Much the same as Hamas militants/terrorists do with the civilian population in the Gaza strip. Much like the situation with the civilians in Vietnam, the locals in Gaza have difficulty moving anywhere else. Even when they take shelter in UN refugee facilities, they still are attacked. I am not unsympathetic to the Israeli predicament; with Hamas sending rockets indiscriminately into Israel, the Israelis have a reason to respond. Unfortunately, as in Vietnam, the cure may prove worse than the disease–”we had to destroy the village in order to save it.”

Violence begets violence. The us versus them thought process dehumanizes those with whom we are in conflict. When we feel justified in responding with violence, to those we believe (with some justification) hate or disrespect us, we soon conclude that we must win at all costs. We will kill them before they kill us. We will stop only when they are all dead or in complete surrender. But then, inevitably, the cycle begins anew. The resentment among the losers boils up into terrorist activities. The simple answer is: STOP. Stop and realize that those others are fellow human beings. Stop and engage in dialogue. Simple, yes; easy, NO! But in Gaza as in every other area of the world where people fight over land, religion, money, power, self-determination, ethnicity or any other rationalization, it comes down to this. There is no point in debating relative virtues or who has committed more evil or suffered more harm; that only prolongs the suffering of all.

60th Anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights

Jack — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:22:33 +0000

I come late to the party, honoring the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. I won’t waste space here reinventing what news and commentary you can find elsewhere. I do want to mention the sad irony of the recent report of the Senate Armed Services Committee on detainee abuse under the Bush administration. The senators blame Donald Rumsfeld and the White House for countenancing and actively encouraging the torture of high-level detainees. On this point, among others, John McCain and Barack Obama had no differences during the campaign. January 20th cannot come too soon, to right the wrongs of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, etc. By denying the humanity and denying the rights all humans should be afforded, we are no better than the criminals, the terrorists or other evildoers we mistreat. But we need to move well beyond self-reflection and correction to stop coddling China, ignoring Darfur, and generally speaking–acting not simply on the basis of our American economic self-interest but on the basis of recognizing and supporting human rights everywhere. As an elective democracy, it is important to remember that the American people are sovereign. Presidents, congressmen and senators are elected to do our bidding. At the same time, we are all equally citizens of the world, with the opportunity to express ourselves and communicate with our fellow human beings wherever they may live around the globe.

A day to remember, 9/11

Jack — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:55:37 +0000

About 7 1/2 years ago, my wife felt frustrated that she had not received a promotion she had applied for. Everyone (her coworkers and associates) were surprised when someone else got the job instead of her. She worked for the Department of the Army then, before retiring in 2004. As Buddhists we recognize that sometimes we don’t get what we want–what we think we deserve, for a good reason. As it happens, the job that she applied for was at the Pentagon. The location of the section she applied for was at or near the point of the plane’s impact on 9/11. Several people in the section, including the person who did get the position, died in the attack that day. In Buddhism, we refer to this as protection from the Shoten Zenjin (Buddhist Gods or protective forces of the Universe). Karma is a strange thing, which we cannot fathom or explain completely. It’s what makes some people miss the train that crashes and others rush to get on the Titanic before it sets off from port. I empathize with those who lost loved ones on that day even as I feel great appreciation that my wife didn’t get a promotion that would have killed her.

Iraq, Afghanistan and the American Psyche

Jack — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:38:34 +0000

For those whose loved ones are there now or who suffer after effects from time they spent in combat, Iraq and Afghanistan remain an immediate concern. For others, like myself, the conflicts are an abstraction. The sufferings of the soldiers and the civilians do not pain my psyche. I have to remind myself again and again, despite regular news coverage, of the real pain that war causes. Am I alone in that respect? I suspect many Americans find themselves in the same place, given the relative scarcity of antiwar protests for some time now. How much more removed from our psyches are the conflicts elsewhere in the world, with far greater casualties. Few American families have a substantial stake (i.e., loved ones) fighting elsewhere in Asia or in Africa. There are dictatorships as bad or worse than that of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein yet America makes no efforts to replace them as we did Saddam. There are perhaps people and situations that require a military response; dictators with whom no negotiation is possible or useful. Yet war inevitably leads to massive suffering. Each war in which America has been involved over the past fifty years has resulted in more serious and longer lasting injuries over the immediate trauma of death. Families suffer and soldiers suffer. Typically, it is the young who are sent off to fight and die (or suffer horrible injuries). In Africa, children are conscripted to fight. If the leaders of all the countries in the world were to agree that no one younger than age 50 could be sent into combat, do you suppose a substantial reduction in wars would result? I do. An unlikely proposition perhaps, but one worth considering. Then again too, it is far past time for the people, not the leaders, to make such decisions. How could they do so in dictatorships? It all comes down to a matter of will. As for me, a belief in the power of prayer–specifically the invocation of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the critical element. For others, a different prayer will be their focus. But in all cases, the intention to view fellow humans as other than villains or the enemy and instead with respect is critical.

Waiting for Gitmo to Close

Jack — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:35:05 +0000

Comes now a military (meaning a U.S. military legal officer, not some outsider) defense lawyer saying he was shown an SOP manual for interrogators provided by the Pentagon that urged them to destroy handwritten notes of questioning to avoid the potential disclosure of harsh interrogation techniques. It just keeps on coming. I don’t think I need say more about closing Guantanamo or the need to investigate and prosecute U.S. officials. McCain would likely close Gitmo, but would he mount as vigorous an investigation as Obama? Something to remember for November.

Amanda Knox and Guantanamo

Jack — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:08:52 +0000

I caught a bit of Good Morning America this AM. They featured a story about the seven month ordeal of Amanda Knox, an American student jailed in Italy without charges–apparently on suspicion of complicity in the death of her roommate. GMA painted a grim story, tugging at the heart strings of viewers by interviewing the girl’s teary-eyed parents as well as her three sisters. GMA noted without comment but implicit criticism, that Italy allows a person to be jailed without charges for up to a year. I can empathize, without having any knowledge of the girl’s guilt or innocence. Ironic isn’t it, that there are parents and siblings from various countries around the world who are experiencing the same pain with loved ones being held in Guantanamo Bay by the U.S. Unlike Ms. Knox, they don’t have any family visitors. Their incarceration is not limited to one year. They may be subject to torture as well. Makes one wonder what expectation Americans should have in the future if they should have the misfortune of being locked up abroad. Will the government of the foreign country, its citizens or the world in general feel any concern or sympathy? In Christian parlance, I believe the verse goes “you reap what you sow.” As a Buddhist, the notion of creating karma can be readily understood in much the same way–even as in the familiar, “what goes around comes around.”