A Zarathousht Exchange on the War

Quoting another: 10/10/2001 "I am grateful to [this Zoroastrian forum] for providing this opportunity to express our feelings and opinions. At emotionally charged times like this we all have strong opinions, and a strong desire to be heard. I appreciated [D's...] concern for the suffering of the larger world community, many of whom have so accommodated themselves to their dire states that we tend to shrug off their suffering or to take take it for granted. I had occasion to visit Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion. It was a poor country even then, but it was progressive. City women wore dresses, and behaved much like their counterparts in Iran, and village women, who were very conservative, picked fruit and worked in the fields. Afghanistan has a population of 23 million and the Russians planted 29 million landmines. Children and women had their legs blown off. That is why Princess dianne took up the fight against mines so earnestly. Had we in America not abandoned the Afghans after using them to defeat the Soviet empire, had we helped them remove the mines and rebuild some of their ruined towns, roads etc., had we given the war ravaged people scraps of food -- there would have been no Taliban and no Bin Laden. The beautiful Twin Towers would have stood tall as modern day marvels and beacons of our hope for the future. Thousands of American lives would have been spared. There is an email circulating that says: "bomb them with butter". Indeed. Famine has forced the Afghans to eat a poisonous gruel made up of wheat and grasshoppers. The enormity of their plight and the size of the impending disaster is only just beginning to register. They really need help. Let us not forget that terrorism is the weapon of the week. It is the only weapon left to those who do not have recourse even to the United Nations. Even if we hide each razor blade in America nothing can stop an attack from a man who is desperate enough to commit suicide. Our only recourse is to address the grievances that are generating so much anger and hopelessness. As a nation we are proud -- and there is a lot in America to be proud of -- but pride often leads to arrogance. If there is one lesson life teaches us, and it does so constantly, it is that of humility. When arrogance in individuals is punished with such severity, it is frightening to think of what we can bring upon ourselves by our collective National Arrogance. One last thing -- let us denounce war and spread Gandhiji's message of sanity that 'violence cannot be stopped by more violence' -- Let us join peace rallies and denounce war, for what is war if not the largest terrorist atrocity?"

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In response: 10/12/2001 Dear (Zarathoshts), Notwithstanding Gandhi's excellent succor of kinder recourse to conflict; unfortunately, War is the Just and necessary response to certain predicaments of the human condition. "War is Hell" too well says what this horror is. While noting that America had no Marshall Plan for Afghanistan, impetus for our engagement there seems little remarked. Our contention was instigated in response to a war of (Soviet) aggression (was Reagan supposed to surrender the Cold War to the USSR?). Afterwards, Afghans were entrusted with the retreat of our non-Muslim presence and a chance to take up and employ marvelous known tools of governance already developed and won out through hundreds of years of political struggle in the West and elsewhere: There were multiple players, not America alone, in the sadly wasted opportunity. Among horrific features of vicious dictatorships not least is that the very ones they oppress are also those burdened in the struggles of resistance and overthrow, (especially in the case one thinks governments "of, by, and for the people" ought not perish). Arrogance Writ Large is not America's in all its sweet naivety and lumbering worldly extension. The Arrogance I oppose is rather that of the genocidal, fascist, disingenuousness of a grossly mistaken, narrow, adolescently rash, sad crew such as the Taliban. Terrorism is no weapon, but a defeat for its perpetrators as well as a violation of its victims. To do such wrong to others is to relinquish one's own humanity and descend to the depths of ignobility. Pity the perpetrators in their malformed intent and distorted Vohu Mano. We are tasked to build a world in which a mind-opening, mind-expanding education is given to every child, and where young, malleable minds do not suffer the immense perversion of bright thought that we see in the poor Taliban. No matter one's cause or aggrievement, to assume sufficient epistemic standing to launch the opening attack we witnessed cannot be acceptable and gives America strong cause for war. With many parts to the claim, the epistemological aspect helps us understand the non-arrogance of America. Human belief can be fierce, but no human can have inviolable certainty of correctness in his or her judgment. Hundred percent correct certainty is often considered God's rather than ours. Thus, social life must guard against this feature of humankind and treat belief more gently than the Taliban and Al-Qaeda treat their epistemic capacity. Democratic government reduces the incidence of warfare. Consider its long traditions as dividing the force of belief among balanced parts of civic life: There are a real pay-offs to the separation of Church and State, to secularizing the civic sphere, to a federated system of governance, to a balance of powers between the branches of government, to the First Amendment, and to war as an act of State. Such aspects of the American experiment are social structural encapsulations protecting us from the possible fierceness of human belief. We enjoy a social structure that is an outcome of centuries of indeed a humility built into the epistemological realm. Young Americans will probably, shortly, die far from home in Afghanistan. What is a soldier's claim on mortality and what do our soldiers believe their lives defend? Whosoever shall perish, can I wish all the arrogance of their Youth and their valor? In our many views on September 11, we can honor our own Spithrodates, the Zoroastrian Youth, who took up arms in our behalf and died 2600+ years ago, as we understand the perplexities brought to humanity in the folly and tragedy of War. Best, Natalie Vania