The Promise Of Peace, The Folly Of Violence

No military nor police state in the world can stop terrorists from wreaking havoc but civil societies can stop them from having the motivation to do so, and it’s not a matter of stopping a crime — it’s a matter of giving the communities from which these individuals emerge a more viable alternative.
 
To continue a policy of war as a response to the violence is an act of folly. How do we punish the ideology that motivates these crimes? Yes, the people who have committed them will be prosecuted, and the military will no doubt go after the organizations behind these acts, but the answer is not to kill their family, their brethren or destroy their communities as part of a greater response.
 
Yet, that is what lies behind the “War on Terror.” All we are doing is continuing the cycle of violence, while ignoring the role of the West in setting the conditions for this violence to emerge in the first place.
 
Isn’t peace a better option? Isn’t it a smarter option?
 
Isn’t the opportunity for shared prosperity a better option? And wouldn’t it be less costly to us in the long run?
 
Would it not cost fewer lives?
 
If we continue to support a war on terror, then I’m afraid that we will continue to see the war hit us here in our homes, in our cities, in our schools, in our planes and our subways, and I worry about how the technology that we create will be used against us.
 
As long as western societies continue to provide the hopeless conditions that motivate individuals to strike out against us, then I will worry. These individuals use violence as their voice, they lash out to scare us, and each time, we respond with fear and shock, which, combined with the 24-hour global news coverage of the horror, provides their cause with an abundance of free promotion. Thus, we incentivize their violence and motivate them to come back for more. I worry about the day when someone flies a drone carrying a dirty bomb into an American or European city and I have begun to think that it’s just a matter of time.
 
But what if we found a way to displace their motivation? A way to disarm the ideology?
 
Like I said, there is no military or police force that can stop a terrorist organization that is hell-bent on destruction. Even the most totalitarian police state cannot stop this, and I don’t want to live in such a police state, so we must approach this problem differently.
 
To me, the answer lies in discovering what we have in common with the communities from which the terrorists emerge, in order to develop relationships based on that, with the goal of bringing peace, stability and opportunity to those regions.

Surely, at the very least, what we have in common is our shared humanity, our shared hope for a better day.

War does not have to be forever. We should ask ourselves who profits from all of these wars? I can say with certainty that we don’t.