The True Path to Peace

The easiest thing to do is to fight. Raise a fist. Brandish a weapon. Fight to the death. There is much appeal in the call to arms. A war is final. One side will win. The other side will retreat to its corner of shame and lament in its loss. But most things in this world do not conform to the certainty of a fight. Often in life a “winner” will lose just as much as a “loser”.
This is surely the case in the War in Iraq. No doubt our troops have bravely served us in Iraq. However, the notion that keeping a large number of forces in Iraq indefinitely is the only way to keep us secure is wrong. In fact, in the long run it will make us less secure by continuing to engender animosity in the Muslim world.
There are many people who force the battle because they believe Americans only understand combat. These people manipulate the nature of the fight – the presence of winners and losers – to prey on America’s fear of losing. I am writing this because I am an American and I am not afraid to lose. In fact, I know America will win. But I believe our present policies will not lead us to victory. So today I offer a new direction; an option that does not require war or weapons and ceaseless fighting. It is a course that is central to the American experience.
All people want freedom. You would be hard-pressed to find any individual that would rather be cast in the manacles of oppression than be free to walk on the sweet plains of liberty. But the idea of waging war to liberate an oppressed people is an illogical solution. Freedom comes from not being hungry. Freedom comes from being educated. Freedom does not come from using force. To be forever beholden to a weapon in order to retain your freedom is to not be free at all. Our country has for too long been beholden to its weapons, using war rather than diplomacy to achieve our means.
Diplomacy is the art of winning over the moderates. Moderates are rational people and rational people are capable of being swayed by reason. Radicals take longer to be persuaded, but they eventually move to the middle as well for fear of becoming obsolete. If we can unite with enough moderates to marginalize enough radicals, peace will come naturally. I call this approach peace through moderation. This plan does not require weapons; it requires strong leaders who will work to make their countries better through improved education, health care and housing.
We have an advantage in that democracy and its ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and representative government are what most people want. But we must not alienate those who want democracy by seeming as though we are the only ones who can do it right. Democracy existed long before our country was even conceived.
All people who yearn for democracy must be willing to rise up in a movement of solidarity and demand that their country address their grievances. We cannot turn a blind eye to leaders that refuse to answer the will of the people. And we cannot accept the suppression of democracy in the name of fighting terror. It is the presence of democracy, which cannot be imposed by any outside source, which ultimately defeats terror. And the desire for democracy comes from being able to have food, shelter, health and books.
The true path to peace is not to make armies larger and supply soldiers with shinier weapons; the true path to peace is to provide food to the hungry; to build more houses with stronger roofs; to establish more efficient hospitals with quality doctors; and to construct bigger schools with more books. These actions satisfy the essence of the Declaration of Independence, which endows the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

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