Compassion: A Solution to the Hydras of Ideology

In Gaza we see the epitome of the faults in this era of global conflict. The solution heralded by the world’s leading state, the United States of America, and thus emulated by governments around the planet, is one of brute force and military superiority. Kill those who make the decisions and the ideologies they support will flounder and fail.

This reasoning could not be farther from the truth. Time and time again we have seen this logic utterly fail. In Somalia, a campaign was waged in the mid-90s in the capital, Mogadishu, to oust a Warlord in an attempt to democratize the country. The country is in worse condition today. In Afghanistan, we search ceaselessly for Osama bin Laden in an attempt to cut off the head of the serpent of al-Qaida and extremist Islam groups. Hamas and Hezbollah come to power in Palestine and Lebanon. In Iraq, the U.S. produces the head of Hussein to bring peace to a potentially nuclear state. The country becomes mired in civil war, a victim of widespread sectarian violence.

The answer is not war. An infinite amount of death and destruction will never kill an idea. Like a hydra regrowing its heads, other men can rise to fill an ideological power vacuum, spouting the same rhetoric. Most likely they will be even more incensed towards violence and willing to take further extremist measures to find justice for their followers, their predecessors and their ideas.

The answer is acceptance and respect.

One may not jump to this conclusion when faced with a terrorist with a bomb strapped to his chest. Should we respect this man? Let him into our house and home, give him bread and water? Maybe not. But the terrorist is a product of continued neglect and abuse of any ideology or people.

Al-Qaida would never have risen to power if several prerequisites had never been fulfilled. First, if Afghanistan had not been neglected by the West following its heroic stand against Soviet invasion late in the Cold War, it would not have emerged scarred and feeling utterly used as a tool for the supremacy of Westernized democratic capitalism over Soviet communism. Second, if Iran and Iraq had been given anywhere near the sort of financial assistance shown to Israel through the closing decades of the twenty-first century, the Islam world would not have felt the squeeze of poverty and neglect that turned it towards Islamic fundamentalism. Finally, if the United States had not incessantly favoured Israel on an agenda that directly so clearly screamed of preferential imperialism, it would not have been the beacon of hatred for the frustration of the impoverished Islamic community.

This all could have been solved by an equal distribution of well-intentioned aid, of respect and acceptance. In an increasingly crowded world, acceptance and compassion is becoming a crucial ingredient for global stability and, perhaps more importantly, humanity’s survival. A third global conflict could realistically set our civilization back millennia. If we can avoid that with simple compassion, it would be a shame if the ignorant and selfish agenda perpetuated by this generation of American leaders continued.