Last week, my local library threw a children's party to celebrate Dr. Seuss's 108th birthday. My 3-year-old son, an American, played with an adorable Irani girl, while another father wearing a Jewish yarmulke walked in with his toddler son. As our children played together, a dispute arose over a toy. After a few tense moments, they realized that if each was patient, then each would have a fair turn, and no one would be slighted. I couldn't help but smile -- if only our world leaders could learn the art of human interaction and dialogue as an alternative to fighting.
Ernest Hemingway, widely regarded as the author of one of history's greatest wartime novels, once wrote, "Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. Ask the infantry and the dead." Hemingway wrote these words after having suffered through both WWI and WWII. Considering the escalating tensions between Israel and Iran, WWIII now seems a more inevitable reality than ever. And like its predecessor wars, WWIII will not only involve the unjustified instigator and justified defender, but countless innocents. And regardless of which nation is deemed the unjustified instigator -- the world will suffer another lost generation.
When our arrogance makes us ignorant to the horror that is war -- WWIII will have begun. Recall with humility, then, that WWI and WWII killed 20 million and 60 million respectively -- roughly 3 percent of the then world population -- and wounded many millions more. Recall then, that plants still do not grow -- some 75 years later -- at ground zero in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even ignoring the incomparably more damage nuclear weaponry causes, know then that 3 percent of the world's population today means at least 210 million people -- nearly triple that of Iran and Israel's combined populations.
Decades earlier, President Kennedy famously said, "Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind." And everyone from Margaret Thatcher to Ronald Regan endorsed this perspective. This mature thinking and noble approach to international conflict helped both the United States and Soviet Union successfully avoid nuclear war for decades -- ultimately reaching a peaceful mutual resolution. Critics contend that this peace was only successfully achieved after the Soviet Union's economic collapse, and neither Israel nor Iran would find such an end amenable.
Humoring this contention, however, the proper comparison is not one of economic strength versus economic collapse. Rather, the comparison is between existence and worldwide annihilation -- and no sane individual would prefer the latter option to merely rebuilding an economic infrastructure. Indeed, when asked what weapons might be used in WWIII, Einstein thoughtfully replied that though he was unsure, he was quite certain that WWIV would be fought with sticks and stones.
No doubt recognizing the irreparable harms a nuclear war would cause, President Obama, too, delivered this same message on March 5 when he met with Prime Minister Netanyahu -- diplomacy with one another, not destruction of one another, must be our guiding principle. After all, if children celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday can appreciate this, then hopefully, our world leaders can as well.
Follow Qasim Rashid on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MuslimIQ
MJ Rosenberg: NY Times: Attack on Iran Could Blow Back Here at Home
Robert Naiman: Keith Ellison and Walter Jones Stand Up for Diplomatic Engagement With Iran
Obama to Netanyahu: Give Iran diplomacy more time | The Envoy ...
Iran diplomacy needed – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs
or like he says in the video: "Israel says the USA can't wait much longer..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKKS9sQsyXE (who is he representing anyway?)
2) President Carter also thinks Netanyahu is the Warmonger in chief.
“I don’t think that’s his (Netanyahu's) first preference, but I think he’s much more eager to go to war with Iran"
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/6/carter-netanyahu-too-eager-war-iran/
3) On top of that, now also former Mossad chief Meir Dagan says attacking Iran would be foolish and that the Iranians are actually "rational".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXEl0qQ2Bhc
4) oh... about Hemingway... let's not make things too complicated by invoking the wisdom of brilliant writers to promote a sensible approach.... writes and literature are "elitist" these days... or did anybody think Joe the Plumber prefers Hemingway over Batman when he falls back on literature to form an opinion on foreign affairs?
the bloodly charge into yet another Mid East ME$$.....
and he can pay for it too $$$$$
We need to show Israel we are exploring the internet for
the Truth and finding so much the MSM has hidden....
Like...
Bibi telling the US Congress almost 20 years ago...
" we will not need YOUR MONEY much longer ! "
Call Congress.....repeat that and that Israel's economy
has done BETTER than the US for years.....so why
borrow when we are broke, for a country that
needs it LESS than WE DO ?!?!
That's not a particularly novel thought. What is missing is a path to achieve that.
There seems to be a lack of adult voices of reason anymore in the mainstream media.
"The source of lack of peace and stability?"
That is not Iran. According to Gen. Patraeus (and most others not wedded to the Zionist narrative), that would be the Israel/Palestine issue.
Combined with the fact that Israel has surreptitiously acquired anywhere from 200-400 nuclear weapons themselves, lecturing the world about Iran getting one or two is the height of hypocricy.
Only in the US MSM could they posit the Israeli position on Iran's nuclear program without bursting out into laughter, much less suffering the slightest cognitive dissonance that one would expect from even a child.
The conflict has been Iran's against the liberal democratic world, at the forefront of which stands Israel. Thus, this is Iran's conflict, but not only with the west, including Israel; it is one against the Muslim-Arab world of the Middle East and North Africa as well since the latter is predominantly Sunni Muslim and Iran's brand of Islam is Shiaa, one that is eager to impose its brand on the rest of the Islamic world.
Let us hope, therefore, that the world as a whole, and especially the liberal democratic part of it, along with the Muslim-Arab one, stand shoulder to shoulder along with Israel to prevent Iran from its deadly aggressive designs.
The USA? Vietnam,Grenada,Afghanistan,IraqX2........
Israel? Palestine , Lebanon X2, Egypt,Syria,Jordan,Iraq.
What it's time for? The World to band together and stop the US Israeli alliance of aggression and war making.
The Shi`a is nothing of the kind.
More and more people are beginning to see through your lies every day.
You try to make your problem the worlds problem, but sorry, it's your problem alone. A problem that you caused all by yourself.
All of the Arab world, including the PLO and Hamas, are ready to accept an Israel within its 1967 borders. Which is incredible, given that Israel was established on someone elses stolen land. But that is still not enough for you. So you come up with the latest distraction / diversion.
Complaining about an eventual Iranian nuke is disingenuous when Israel itself started with the nuclear race in the ME. It will be a hundred years before Iran will have the same capability.
If they were planning on that. Which they are not.
So, why don't we focus on the threat of Iran as has been recognized by the IAEA, the European Union countries, Canada, the United States, Australia, India and Japan by naming only a few countries, shall we...??
they Excuse anything....
even the Killing of over 300 CHILDREN in Gaza in
only a month.....talk about a rogue nation !
Who should he therefore be preaching to?
a future land swap, maybe more land for Gaza in return....
does it have a right to OCCUPY the West Bank and continue
to TAKE LAND.....NO !
About 90% of the world agrees !
My father had read the book. Very quietly, he said, "It can happen." And the way he said it, I understood that he'd seen it himself, because there was a dead certainty in his tone. But what I suddenly saw was that the desperation and ugliness of war can drive men beyond their ability to endure it.
My seven year old came home in a Dr. Seuss hat last week and I'd prefer that he and all the other kids never find out about the reality of war.
Peace is the only contemplatable solution.
The Muslim Caliph wrote to both leaders and asked them to do everything to avoid war: http://www.themuslimtimes.org/2012/03/religion/leader-of-ahmadiyya-muslim-community-warns-israel-against-attack-on-iran-starting-ww-iii
Israel aired the Muslim caliph's message on tv: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqj2kff--Q0
which really touched my heart, because Iran did not air what the Muslim caliph had to say.
It's there choice. Remember, "There is no compulsion in religion." (2:256) And yes, after reading the article on who really runs Iran, it is not at all surprising...It is sad.
The Queen of Sheba accepted Solomon's advice to stop worshiping the sun and chose to worship God. She had a good end.
The King of Chosros promised to arrest the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, and he was murdered by his son, who accepted the Holy Prophet.
What I am trying to say is that what they choose to do with the message spells their own end.
Dude, it talks about war in this short post of Qasim. Not at all about law. But when we talk about law, do both side, Muslims and Israel abide by the Law ? Yeah, we can say Iran is not practicing true Sharia as well as Israel is neglecting whatever decision made by UN.
BTW -- Jews making profit on war, maybe you don't know but that's classic anti-semetic libel. Can you identify some of such alleged "peeps" -- whaterver a peep is.
Thank you, for the sanity and great article, Mr. Rashid.