| It takes one day to undo years of reinforcement and
teachings. One day to make a nation and world realize that it was only
fooling itself and harming its own by thinking anything otherwise.
Three buildings, four aircraft, and now everything that has happened, that
is happening, and is going to happen is not registering with a large group
of people because we've been teaching them lies all these years.
We've failed them.
We let them believe that things like true peace are possible without a fight,
only then to have it reinforced by living a charmed existance where it didn't
touch us. We taught them that there have been no real wars since World
War II, and that everything since then was something political and that this
is what the face of foreign relations and conflict would be like forever
-- grunting and threatening to deploy troops to an area if they don't straighten
up and behave.
We knew better.
And yet we continued to preach diplomacy, and understanding, and not rocking
the boat. "Speak softly and carry a big stick" used to describe U.S.
creed and diplomacy. And it worked for so many years, and built the
U.S. into a world power. And then we began deluding ourselves and those
around us into thinking that the big stick wasn't needed anymore, that if
you spoke softly enough you could do anything.
We turned our backs on thousands of years of human history, and not only
believed it ourselves that we were somehow special and different, but perpetrated
the even worse crime of instilling this same false, and utterly foolish,
sense into the next generations.
And now we need the big stick, and we have many confused and not understanding
that without the big stick, there can be no speaking softly, and in many
cases no speaking at all. Sure, if you wield the big stick, some people
are going to see you as The Great Satan. It comes with the territory.
But we blew it.
We've taught for so long that even in international affairs and world politics,
that two wrongs don't make a right, with no exceptions, that now some people
don't understand why that idealism gets you and your loved ones killed on
the global stage. We made more out of the anti-war protests of the
60's and 70's than we probably should have, painting them as heroes against
a big corrupt government, and failing to present the other side completely
and what was then percieved as a very real global threat.
And now a government wants to protect its children. A *world* wants
to protect its children, and are being decried in some circles for doing
so because "retlaliation is not the answer" and "accomplishes nothing".
It's our fault though for fooling ourselves and our families for all these
years into thinking that mere threats, sanctions, embargoes, and hand-slapping
are enough. That all people think like us and that all people hold
the exact same things dear to them.
They don't.
The Christian in me bleeds, and hurts to see the anger, and to know that
this isn't the end of it, only the beginning.
The realist in me though knows that the people responsible for these acts
of terror aren't suddenly happy and pleased, and going to stop with them.
The military historian in me knows that this truly was and is the dumbest
thing anyone has ever pulled against a nation. And the thinker in me
knows that even then it could have been much, much worse, and even more costly.
We've failed in our beliefs, and our teachings. Deep down we knew
the truth, but held out hope anyways. And now reality has struck.
May God be with us all, and may we never make the same mistake again.
-- Rik A. Kyser. |
