War Hero or War Criminal, Who Decides?

Comments

[PerfectHarmony]

A very well and touching piece, as always, Deepak and touch deep within and also bring out the best within us. I would just like to comment here on his last words with respect to the elections and my thoughts on who could win on Nov 4, 2008.

Law tells us people not born in US cannot run for president,
During primaries, media told us Americans are not ready for woman president
Later media told us Americans are not ready for a black president,
...... or a Mormon president,
.......or a Muslim president,
.......or any one not a true Christian president
....... or ... the list goes on ...
When we put all this long list together, who are the two last people left
-- John and Palin, of course.

[drchandly]

John McCain was born in Panama not the United States.

[sticksnstones]

I am responding to you as an individual who was once a warrior. Your comments seem to me to be particularly timely as we ready our nation for a new administration, and perhaps a new direction. The archptye of the warrior hero has been used throughout human history to the exclusive benefit of ones group, tribe, clan, or nation for the justification of war and glorification of armed conflict. The hero belongs to and his entity is the property of his group. I will not in any way place a value upon the archtype as I type this, but I feel compelled to comment upon the war hero archtype as it relates to my personal experience and how my personal experience relates to this election.
I have never, not even once, spoken with a fellow combat veteran who would describe himself as a war hero. I have never, not even once, spoken with any of these veterans who felt comfortable having any another person refer to them as a hero. There is an inherent, unspoken, and deeply understood knowledge among combat veterans that any self-promotion as some kind of hero dishonors those of our fellow warriors who, unlike us, returned home under a draped flag. That said, I feel great discomfort when a war veteran, a man who obviously glories in the title of war hero, uses his experiences in an effort to achieve political gain and advantage as if those experiences were merely loose change in his pocket.

[GrainOSand]

Powerful!

[CubanVoice]

You're amazing!

Like you say, it all comes down to perspective - from where we look at a particular issue. This is so important a message. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this and allowing us to think about something beyond the name-calling during these crucial and anxiety-ridden days.

War is deeply inbedded in our psyche but I don't think it's a natural state, which is why so many psychological scars result. In our society not thinking and simply following what talking heads say is our biggest problem. Even with a subject as serious as war we seem to lean toward a pack-behav­ior/mental­ity. Even the hero archetype, so old a concept, is laid out for our consumption completely based on whose voice we want to hear. I could go on and on - but a simple comparison would be war hero McCain, as he is tauted by the MSM - versus - not so war hero John Carey, whose fall from grace was swift (boated) as those in power deemed appropriate for the purposes of an election.

The bottom line is that WE are the anti-heroes - the American public/American people. We buy into anything - we buy heroics where none exist and erase them where we see fit. My hopes are high for Tuesday, but I've been disappointed before. Whatever happens, it WILL be what we deserve.

[GrainOSand]

Insightful!

[ReHoover51]

yes !!! thank you for your insight
and dont forget that the christian cross is really constantine's sword (of battle) - christianity was forced through the greatest violence in all of history (crusades, the inquesition, witch burnings, molestations, and full out murder of anyone opposing the christian doctrine, etc, etc, etc)
we need rational thinkers like you in obama's new cabinet to stop the era of the war hero.
i have a very hard time supporting the troops because they are just murdering for bush in the name of christ (remember bush said this is a crusade, and he said g*d told him to do this, and we all know, now, that bush lied us into the war -- he is a war criminal)
1000s and 1000s, and 1000s of innocent men, women and children were murdered in the first "shock and awe" and we sat there watching it in real time with star spangled banners in our eyes - that, to me, was the sickest thing i could imagine
and as you stated we are a broke nation, financially, and spiritually because of what we allowed our administration to do ... and still mcCain calls for upping the $$$ for the iraq "war" ...
the sponsors of this war (Haliburton, BlackWater, Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice) ARE war criminals - PERIOD!!!
thank you for standing up for change to the average joe-6-pack mentality of "kill baby kill" ...

[GrainOSand]

Mr. Chopra was calling for the best in us in his testimonial and your comment and the others reflect that we may just get through this because we have not been collectively duped by the charlatan class.

[ReHoover51]

we have to admit the truth before we can change the insane policies we live under!
i was citing my feelings of how we got to where we call many HEROES, rather than CRIMINALS
without the realization of what christianity has done, we cannot change to become civiized humans on this planet
i regard all religions as non-sense...
i am NOT a true believer because the truth is that if a g*d has allowed 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of cases of child molestation, the crusades, the inquesition, and the systematic torture/murder of innocent men, women and children throughout history because of their NON-beliefs, then there really isnt an invisible man in the sky protecting us and we MUST find another way to live together that doesnt demand separation by g*d power

[GrainOSand]

Mr. Chopra, thank you from deep in my cave of existence where my fire of life flickers in the cold wind of the reality blowing through my mind. I had to quiet my mind to hear you through, so many thoughts, so many memories rushed forward. This day finds me accepting of my state of existence and therefore joyful (personal responsibility) yet, I often howl at the moon of collective woe and misery, and wonder why we opt for gloom and doom when a better path is not only possible, but our continued existence seems to depend on it.

I am no scholar of history and events, able to regurgitate this or that occurrence and tie the glorious and horrible past, the challenging and rewarding present, and the perilous and promising future together as a living assessment. I take a momentary binary approach to love. I know not degrees of love. My love for all people on this earth is always one, or on, versus zero, or off.

Simplistically, I often state that all we need do is have the courage to love and all earthly problems would melt under the heat brought by a global family united in peace, mutual respect, concern, and desire to end all forms of suffering. The iceberg of woe would dwindle under such warmth. Stupidly, I try to convince others of this and I am ridiculed, called naïve, and idealistic. Your posting has inspired me to try yet again. I will comment further...

[GrainOSand]

IV
Mr. Chopra, if the world wanted to, strife could be ended. The warring mentality is one of self-interest over interest in uplifting human life -- even in cases of self-defense. Is there righteous war? There is only the appropriate response to unrighteousness revealed in a moment. The appropriate response is informed by the appropriate content of heart and mind. If each governing state made it a priority to provide a societal environment towards healing, nurturing, and protecting the hearts and minds of its citizens, war would become outdated. America’s presence in Iraq is not emblematic of an appropriate response to an unrighteous regime. First, the response is inconsistent. We did not go to Rwanda and we are not going to the Sudan to deal militarily with tyrants who kill with impunity. Second, the societal environment that is America is stricken by the sickness of selfishness that manifests as greed, hatred of fellow citizen, toxic and corrupting ambition, and life shattering, paralyzing, and defining fear and hubris. This manifests in hospitals that leave patients to die, police officers who rob and kill, corporate environments of greed driving ambition, and government officials who rob and kill on a massive scale.

When self-interest becomes the priority to be concerned with others with the realization that by assuming such a posture one does tend to their own needs, then the world will have truly made a great leap forward from the knuckle dragging, club over the head existence that currently pervades.

[GrainOSand]

III
Hero or criminal is the question about the warrior. The answer to this is found in the individual heart and mind of the warrior. It is said that the best fighters are the healers for they understand the devastation that can be done to a human body and therefore they do not enter lightly into situations that threaten life and limb. Lao Tzu said that in order for a human being to be courageous they must be righteous. To me, this means that if I must resort to the lowest form of human interaction -- which is violence, then at the moment of that determination I must know that my cause is just, fair, loving, and truly the last resort. Thus, when I rise up in defense of what is just, fair, and loving, I am more ferocious than any war-minded individual, army of soldiers, or nation with designs of world hegemony could have ever imagine a loving entity to be. I am at one with my actions not split by doubt, second thoughts, or public dissent. Thus, Iraq fell because Saddam was not righteous and therefore his people did not rally for him. When the leader is righteous, and the people love that leader, they will die for that leader and more importantly, they will live because that leader will make every effort to insure prosperity and peace and this will be plain to the people. That leader will not commit the people to illegal and unnecessary war.

[GrainOSand]

I
War is started within the human heart. It starts as degrees of dismissal of the value or worth of the lives of others. It is a measurement of personal interest trumping, or being against, any concern for the existence of others. War is coldhearted and hot blooded. Individual wars happen all over the world everyday. History brings us the tales of collective war, where armed forces are assembled and deployed under a battle plan to achieve a military objective. That is macro-war. War starts at the micro-level of individual indifference to the plight of others. War seeds germinate in the hearts and minds of individuals who have run out of options to be humane.

I was a boy of six or seven when I was introduced firsthand to the concept of war. There I was in my innocent bliss thinking and feeling that the world was a magical and wonderful place and abruptly, I was shaken from that dream. A woman who lived in my building met a brutal death at the hands of another human being. Though I was shielded at the time from the gory details, I was able to discern enough to become engrossed with the question of why anyone would ever be so dismissive of another human beings’ life that they would seek to put that life to an end -- a bloody, painful, horrific end.

My ponderings caused me to embrace love and that has made all the difference.

[OregonCitizen]

Deepak, thank you so much for posting this video. I truly have admired your wisdom for many years. I think we can truly change our genetic coding for war yet I believe it will need to take evolutionary steps in order for us to get there. As a woman, I can easily see this happening, but due to my gender, the question is...am I biased towards my position because I have given birth and only as a woman have that deeper connection to another human being?
There is that old saying that if women ran the world there would be no war - rings true. We are the ones that have given birth to the soldiers that are being sent off to war. If given a choice, women would exhaust all options before ever sending another woman's child into battle.
Ultimately we will become a universal culture due to the joyous melding of all of our cultures into one big family. Racism will not survive because we will be as one. Perhaps I am a dreamer, but I know I am not alone. If we all work together for the betterment of the world & teach our children the same, won't we ultimately triumph??

[paragrafH]

Thank you so much Dr. Chopra. This was a stirring call to dis-arm. Let me weigh in with my support and my commitment to dis-arming my own demons (currently a work in progress). I believe the support for Sen. Obama in this campaign demonstrates more than a call for change. That call in itself signals a chink in the complacency of the electorate who find they can no longer give away their power by going about their lives in ignorance of political consequences. This very rising up signals a movement of coming together for the common good and finding unity -- and curiosity about the the world and their places in it. Much to look forward to.