Cease Fire

            A cease-fire would certainly be the first step.  But how would that be possible with all of those years of frustration, anger and hatred – those tormenting emotions that presently fuel the engines of aspiring martyrs, such as yourself - seeking your avowed revenge?

            The urge for revenge is natural.  When you feel that you have been attacked unjustly, the urge to retaliate is human.  Osama bin Laden, when you released a tape recording of your conversation with other al Qaeda members after the 9/11 attack, your words echoed with feelings of pride and delight as you described the Twin Towers crumbling to dust as if your dreams had come true.  It was a time of celebration for al Qaeda and extreme sympathizers.  But it has not created lasting joy.  Instead, the families, friends and countrymen of the innocent people that you killed, felt that they were attacked unjustly.

            A tremendous urge to strike back – to avenge our attackers and neutralize them - to prevent further attacks propelled us into action.  The United Nations voted to support an allied military effort that successfully ousted the Taliban ruled government, which acted as coconspirators and facilitators for al Qaeda operations.  Still fearful of further terror attacks, and perhaps fueled by revenge for a failed assassination attempt on President’s Bush’s father by Saddam Hussein, we were led into the present Iraq conflict.  The outlet for our painful emotions was pointed at Saddam Hussein who was portrayed as having weapons of mass destruction and ties with al Qaeda.  When we saw the statue of Saddam being toppled and the Iraqi people cheering, many felt a degree of revenge fulfilled.  When George Bush declared, “mission accomplished” in Iraq, his words echoed with feelings of delight as yours did when the Twin Towers fell.

            But now both sides live in the daily reality after the initial delight and celebration. However sweet those moments of satisfaction from the acts of revenge were, they are now gone.  The sordid and deadly cycles of attack, counter-attack, revenge and counter-revenge are now part of our daily experience instead.

            The cycles of revenge between religions have rippled through thousands of years – from the Islamic Persian Empire, Alexander the Great and Roman Empire to the Arab Muslim invasion of North Africa to the Middle East and Europe.  Those conflicts were followed by the crusades of almost a thousand years ago to the recent Slobodan Milosevic ethic cleansing genocide against Muslims in revenge for massacres that took place 400 years ago.  After all that merciless revenge, with each side killing each other and destroying each other’s lands - where are we today?