I'm not afraid of WWIII. It may come, and it may not. If it does come, I guarantee you, I'm not the guy who can stop it, and I doubt very much I can hide from it, either. I am aware that my time upon Earth is limited. One day I will die. I accept this, and gain strength from the knowledge that my time here is precious. It is a gift from God, and I'm damned lucky to have it.
We have, on the internet, and in real life, people who believe that we are "at war with Islam." I am here to tell you that, as of today, we are NOT. Islam is an entire religion. It has BILLIONS of followers. I tell you right now, if we ARE at war with Islam, we are screwed. I mean screwed with an F. There are too many of them. If we wiped out a large number of them, ALL of the rest would become enemies, and that means unending terrorism forever. Soldiers of Allah that would spend YEARS hiding among us, waiting for the day to blow us away.
That could happen. Killing all the Islamic people would NOT save the world. It would be pointless genocide, and if we did it, we would be the most evil people who ever lived, and wouldn't DESERVE to continue to have decent lives.
For everyone who believes killing all the Islamic people would make the world better, there's someone else who believes you just have to get rid of the Jews. Just kill all the Jews, and the world would be peaceful. No more suffering. It seems to me, there was a madman who tried that theory out in the middle of the last century. How'd that work out again? Not so good, as I recall.
The Jews, apparently, want to have their own little state, on a tiny strip of land surrounded by hostile Arab nations. Do I "get" that? As a matter of fact, I DON'T! But it's not up to me. I don't get to make World Policy, and neither do any of you.
There IS no "world policy." America, as a nation, once was a leader, and tried to play nice with the UN, and the UN was seen as a body capable of doing what the League of Nations never could; it was set up to make rules that all countries have to live by, and define what is acceptable, and what is not.
Of course, it doesn't have much value if no one follows those rules, or if the body itself is suspect in how it applies those rules evenly to all parties.
That's the problem facing the world right now. As we have since WWII, we stand on the brink. A few nukes exchanged between India and Pakistan; a few of the bigger powers taking some sides; China and Russia lobbing them at the USA and the USA lobbing them back; I think that would be enough to end life as we know it on this planet.
Does anyone agree? Have I overstated that in some way?
There is a wise path. It is a complex and dangerous path; a path where at any time, something could go wrong, and the path could be destroyed. Is that a good reason not to take it? Because you might get hurt? As far as I can see, not taking it will result in getting hurt, and that's a sure thing. One has to have the guts to throw down one's shield, and walk in front of a hostile enemy with confidence.
Confidence that one is worthy of life. Worthy of courage. Worthy of standing up, and staring into the pit of infinity with the raw will to either survive, or die trying. For so long, those on the Traditional Right have tried to label those on the Traditional Left "appeasers." But throwing in for outdated battle is appeasement as well. Saying "I will bomb the countries of the terrorists" is a stupid and useless battle plan. What if ALL the countries start to have terrorists? Your enemy is spread far and wide, and operates without uniforms, rules, or borders, while YOU are clearly marked for destruction. That is foolhardy to the extreme.
I am through with the war on terror. You'll never sell it to me again. You had your chance right after 911, and I feel like a guillable rube for even buying it then. Your war on terror is a fool's mission. Terror is not a thing. It is a concept. And those of you who claim to wage this war are terrorists yourselves.
You want me to be afraid.
But I'm not afraid, and you're not going to get my fear ever again. I KNOW I'm going to die. I can't prevent it. While I'm here, I'm going to use every single day to have something of value; something of meaning. And I'm going to use the only weapon I have available to me. The weapon of words. The weapon of knowledge. Knowledge is power. Bombs are not. You can bomb and bomb and bomb, and you'll never kill off your enemy.
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