“Punk, ask yourself, do you feel…lucky?”

The veneer of civilization is thin. America has nothing to gain from war but the fleeting satisfaction of bloodlust and “evening a score.” But America has everything to lose – imagine a religious war that kills our children, destroys our possessions, obliterates our civilization, and perhaps pollutes our planet beyond recovery.

Why are we carrying lit matches into this powder keg?

War in Afghanistan would be Viet-Nam all over except this time the locals are nearly inaccessible and armed to the teeth. The blood of Persians, Greeks, White Huns, Ghurids, Khwarizm Shahs, Mongols, Timurids, Mughals, Pashtuns,  Pakistanis, Englishmen, Russians, and others has soaked Afghanistan’s rocky terrain. The Brits lost tens of thousands in the First (1838-1842), Second (1878-1880), and Third (1919) Anglo-Afghan Wars. Fifteen years ago, the U.S. was pouring hundreds of millions of dollars worth of arms into Afghanistan; the CIA revived the concept of jihad to inspire the Afghans to fight the Russians. Ten years of trying to tame Afghan guerrillas destroyed the Red Army and crippled the Soviet Union. Do we want a piece of that action?

The Afghans are not guilty. They are ignorant. They live is isolation. They are dirt-poor. They are starving. They live a medieval existence with no television, no Internet, no free press, and no contact with the outside world. All the talibs put together know less of the world around them than the faculty of a typical U.S. elementary school.

The Taliban are not our enemy, and we should not harm them. What’s the rationale for attacking them – you aid the killing of my innocents, I’ll kill some of yours? The Taliban cannot hand over bin Laden –- they are the ultimate true believers; we shouldn’t expect them to commit what they perceive as sin for America. Hello, remember Waco? The Taliban are exasperating to deal with because they play by an entirely different set of rules, but techno-terrorists they are not. Most Taliban couldn’t turn on a PC, much less pilot a passenger jet.

Retaliation won’t work. Violence begets violence. Assassinating bin Laden, today’s Hitler, would create a martyr to inspire generations of kamikaze terrorists. Americans would not be able to travel abroad safely for decades.

Retribution is inconceivable. The vindictive “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” principle for settling a score doesn’t work if the opponent is blind and toothless. America can’t nuke the extremists’ world trade center because they don’t have one. Hell, they don’t have indoor plumbing. It insults the memory of our dead to suggest there’s any way to “get even.”

Our damage was enormous. So is the damage caused by hurricanes and earthquakes. We wish we could change the past. We cannot.

Last week’s attack was meant to goad us into a death-match with Islam, a sucker punch. We’ve been tricked before. A fanatic shoots Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo, millions writhe in agony in muddy trenches. Of course, this time’s different. Instead of mustard gas, we have anthrax and smallpox. In lieu of machine guns, we have missiles. In place of tanks, we have nuclear weapons. Rather than destroying Europe, we can destroy the entire Earth. And since we’re on Internet time, what once took months now takes hours, so we can take down the Earth in a New York minute.

Nonetheless, most Americans are in favor of visiting war on Afghanistan. “Go ahead, Taliban, make my day.” Macho madness.

How can we consider something so inhumane, so dangerous, so costly, so unjust, and so unlikely to produce anything but misery?

Near-sighted Neanderthals

One reason we can contemplate war is our failure to connect the dots to the outcomes.

Human DNA has not evolved a whole lot since we stalked mastodons and lived in caves. Our selfish genes haven’t prepared us to deal further out than our then-teenage lifespans. Most of our mental energy is focused on escaping or attacking wild animals. We fight or flee.

Given time to think, to reflect, and to weigh the consequences, we still follow our immediate, knee-jerk reactions. Why? Because we fool ourselves into thinking that we have a good handle on the future impact of current actions. We assume it’s straightforward or that we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

When we stop to think about it, we discover that most of the middle ground from now to then is uncharted territory. The dots don’t fall into a straight line. Choices are made. Shit happens. If we’d thought through the steps from now to the future, we’d often find ourselves somewhere we hadn’t planned on.

It’s time to play this chess game ten moves ahead rather than whirl into action, stone axes at the ready.

Let’s act civilized. Ask yourself, who’s a better role model for America, John Wayne or Gandhi?

Patriotism

The newspapers are full of support for Bush, right or wrong. That’s as irresponsible as the “just obeying orders” defense. My father is a highly decorated infantry officer; his father fought in World War II and World War I; his father fought in the Civil War; way back when, our ancestors fought alongside George Washington. Time and time again, our family has fought for what’s right.

Patriotism is doing what’s best for one’s country. America needs peace, not war.

Learning

When I started writing this morning, I planned to conclude with a section about how Learning is the Answer. I’ve changed my mind. Maybe later.

I don’t want any static to obscure my message: No one ever “wins” a war.

Asked if he didn’t hate the Chinese, the Dalai Lama replied, “They already have my country. Why should I give them my mind?”

Please don’t give them yours.