Response to the Wall Street Journal

Dear Friends,

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article critical on some comments that I made on CNN and at the same time made some derogatory and personal attacks. Both I and my son, Gotham Chopra, responded and Wall Street Journal has agreed to publish our responses this Friday. In the meanwhile, we are posting our responses in our entirety here on the Huffington Post. Here is mine:

To the Editors,

I think it does a disservice to the Wall Street Journal's integrity to run personal attacks of the kind directed against me by Dorothy Rabinowitz. Since your newspaper whole-heartedly cheered on the disastrous war in Iraq, I can understand why you continue to mount a rear guard action in defense of the Bush administration's approach to militant Islam.

That approach involves unilateral militant aggression without the slightest care for the effect being made on the vast majority of peaceful Muslims. Now that the right wing can no longer continue this discredited policy overtly, Ms. Rabinowitz and her ilk have adopted a fall-back position. Attack anyone who suggests a new way.

I stand by my remarks and have full confidence that the Obama administration will adopt a "root cause" approach of the kind I endorsed. The very thing Ms. Rabinowitz derides is our best hope for peace.

Deepak Chopra

Look for my son's response here on Huffington Post or on Intent.com

Comments

[JayKlein]

Deepak, thanks to you now I can finally think clearly.

Whenever someone puts forth a new idea, a complex ideology, with lots of grey area...The right always puts down that person. May be they are all like Bush...Unable to express a new idea, Unable to comprehend other's point of view. Its always "Either you are with us or against us" mentality. Thats what mafia, gangs and warlords say to their followers.

Thanks. And now that you are here please blog some more.

[Tituba]

Ah my dear Maestro Deepak!

Kudos from the bottom of my heart. How grateful I am to your courage to tell it like it is. If people disagree with your life phylosophy, who cares, that's their prerogative. What is not acceptable is people using the lowest part of their humanity to attack you, your son, and your loved ones. Your appearance on TV was no midnight infomercial selling potato peelers or pancake makers. There's a very old lawyers aphorism that we all learn quite fast: "Never, ever ask a question for which you do not know the answer." Ooooooooops!!! CNN, I guess you didn't know this, right?

[Grandpadavid]

We have few enough thinkers and philosophers among us. Deepak is a rare combination of thinker and teacher who has learned to be non-judgmental and tolerant of all. He is teaching the need for understanding. The WSJ and its writers should pay attention.

The above interview and his responses show his understanding, both of the terrorist problems we face and of the origin of the vitriol that was spewed against him.

I have spent time at his clinic, have appeared with him on a TV show, have attended several of his seminars. Calm in the face of rancorous statements and attacks, such tranquility and equinimity infuriate those trying to provoke him into violent words with their own ill chosen words. Deepak's ability to rise above the fray is well known to those who have been with him. It is RARE for him to lose his cool . Tthe only twwo examples I know of were when he was faced with grave injustice and one instance of very personal, scurrilous attack.,

The neocons and the shouting media work to find ways to create controversy for the sake of selling advertising to the public that responds to such manipulation. Deepak was right not to be sucked into that artificial maelsrom. There are enough important things to absorb our attention and energy without responding to childish rants Rabinowitz and her ilk and the WSJ and the editors that are cooperating in the WSJ's unfortunate descent into yellow journalism.

[wendynyc]

When is the Wall Street Journal going to start including editorials from Hindus and Muslims that are directly affected by these incidents. For people to sit and judge or comment from a completely different ideology just does not do justice to the problem at hand.

[Oldtimer]

Ms. Rabinowitz shows her loyalty to Israel first and then thinks geopolitcally second.
AIPAC is an extremely powerful lobby that exerts tremendous pressure for its small numbers.
I imagine the voices of Rabinowitz and those of AIPAC will cry louder as America takes a "root
cause" look at the geoploitical environment of the Middle East.
Is it not possible to take a close "root cause" look and still support Israel's existence?
The sooner Americans agree that we can and that we must the sooner we can bring a sane
approach to the most insane part of the world.

[avicenna]

No one wants to hear the boring truth, Dr. Chopra; it takes away from the theatrics aimed at garnering support for more bloodshed.

[Tahmineh Khajotia - Huffpost Blogger]

Dr. Chopra, I have been, as cliched as this is getting, glued to the television, since these attacks happened (all of 3 minutes away from me). I avoided CNN coverage for the most part since they were considerably behind on their news as compared to the local channels. However, the first utterances of fighting against terror as a unit, i KNOW, came from you. You said India must stop blaming Pakistan for everything, and on the flip side, it is not enough for Pakistan to simply condemn the attacks. This was very early on I remember, and it made so much sense to me- almost too much, because now that the precise opposite is happening, it is all the more frustrating that I was rooting for the other option.

[levibatgirl]

Good for you Mr Chopra!

I always enjoy your blogs.

[ThinkForYourself2]

Robert Pape, a professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and author of the book "Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism", has compiled and analyzed a database of all 462 suicide terrorist attacks between 1980 and 2004. He states that the primary motivating factor of suicide bombers is "to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory the terrorists view as their homeland". He also states in his analysis that "The taproot of suicide terrorism is nationalism," and he argues; that terrorism is "an extreme strategy for national liberation".

In his analysis he discovered that there were 0 incidents of suicide bombings in Iraq before we invaded, and that the largest amounts of suicide bombings in the world have been committed by the Marxist secular group, the Tamil Tigers. He also discovered that the largest Islamic countries in the world, Sudan and Iran have NO suicide bombings. 0. His conclusion is "That there is little connection between suicide terrorism and Inslamic fundamentalism, or any one of the world's religions."

According to the UN Refugee Agency, over 4.7 millions Iraqi's had to flee their homes during our "liberation". There are some estimates that claim that over 1,000,000 innocent Iraqi's are dead, women and children included, as a result of the U.S. led "liberation". This number surpases the number of deaths in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. If this is all true, then god help us all.

[LudwigVan]

Dr. Chopra, God bless you. Keep telling the truth and don't let the mobs with their virtual pitchforks shout you down.

Ms. Rabinowitz trying to "educate" an Indian on the causes of terrorism in India is like teaching Spanish to a Mexican; the intent isn't to inform, it's to patronize. True, Islamic fundamentalism, the kind of religion that compels one to suspend reason for blind faith, is part of the problem, but why are people embracing Islamic fundamentalism with all its strict moral codes? (And why are Americans embracing Christian fundamentalism for that matter?)

The problem isn't simple, true, and you can't blame the US government for everything, but there is real anger here. It's not all envy like the neocons at WSJ wants us to believe.

[Rule Of Law]

"...the intent isn't to inform, it's to patronize."

The British Empire made a science of the tactic of disenfranchising and then demonizing some ethnic group in every country they conquered. This was a way of providing not only a home grown "threat" that justified their presence and continued violence, but also to act as a pawn against which they could play off the other groups in those countries.

Watch Hotel Rwanda to learn how they artificially separated One People into two groups, the Hutus and the Tsutsis, to provide cover for their own exploitation and genocide, and then look at the legacy of that today.

The best example may be the Israelis and the Palestinians, who prior to the British lived in relative peace and prosperity. George Bush has his War on Terror and the Al Qaeda boogie man to use as a shorthand for Islamic Fundamentalism that gives him the rationale to go anywhere in the world to advance the neo-con corporate agenda. He has learned well from history and taken the British "enemy" ploy and elevated it to a world wide theater.

Chopra is fighting against a system of Neo-Colonialism that Needs the existence of these maniacs to legitimize their greed, arrogance and blood lust. If they didn't exist, they would create them.

[sfm123]

Bravo Deepak ....I hope Obama considers you for a position in his administration.
"Secretary of Happiness and Self Mastery". I love you, what a great job you did raising such an amazing and intelligent son. Light & Love

[AbbieXHoffman]

I want a pair of Deepaks glasses because I want to be able to look at the world through the lenses he uses. Perhaps that is why he wears him---to show his view of the world is different and cool.

[BlackYowe]

Deepak Chopra I am glad you are always there to speak the truth no matter how hard it is for people to stomach.

[chickenhawkwarrior]

The 911 hijackers were all from very wealthy families. The London bombers were from middle class families given more opportunity than 90% of the global population, as have been most of the European terrorists. And most likely you will find that these latest terrorists were not from some slum either…

That tells me that it is not a poverty issue. Of course it is always better to give people opportunity and help w/ poverty…. But until the Muslim world focuses more on helping their brothers and sisters up rather than tearing others down, nothing will change…

For instance, there were riots in the streets over a $%^#@$ Danish cartoon; where are the riots now?

[apduncan1]

"The 911 hijackers were all from very wealthy families. "

Really? Pray tell.

[avicenna]

If that is the case, ironic that they have much in common with the Bush administration.

[drricklippin]

I ,for one, am very pleased that Deepak Chopra is doing more in the political arena.

We need more deep thinking prophets to speak out

As many have said we need to look at terrorism in the context of its fundamental breeding ground- mostly poverty

Furthermore we must educate our especially disenfranchised youth with healthy world views and not with the mind-poison of rigid, intolerant fundamentalist religions (NOTE PLURAL)

Thanks

Dr. Rick Lippin
Southampton, Pa