Happening To Us

Read the headlines. From around the nation. Peek at those from around the globe. Let the stories sink in. Then think this thought: ‘if I were in charge, what would I do?’

Does this simple exercise change anything for you? Does it broaden your perspective on the issues? Does it make the work of leading and following more personal and compelling?

This headline was posted moments ago – “Obama, foreign military chiefs, to thrash out Islamic State plans.” The headlines before this one entailed stories of ‘who’s in charge?’ and ‘what’s the plan?’ This entire story – ISIS and its threat to world stability – is a new encounter, multi-national, and completely outside national borders of the combatants. Who makes the rules for this sort of engagement? Who determines – oh please! – who discerns what is important, when and how we are to respond?  Indeed, who is the ‘we’?

Some would cast the ISIS threat as a religious war. They would be wrong. This is a cultural battle between many mindsets and thrust on the world stage in a suit of terrorism. The good, bad and ugly are all included here. The players are difficult to determine, however, and that makes this a messy affair.

If we protect the region from ISIS, who do we harm?  Again, who is the ‘we’? and then again, how do we identify the players, those harmed, those doing the harm, and the long term goals that everyone is concerned about protecting? None of these is known for certain. In this mish-mash circumstances, serious business of military action, killing, air attacks and bombings are taking place.

Here’s what I wish would happen. Let all the media writers and producers close their mouths to listen and learn. There is much to this situation and it is not simple. Stop the reports on skirmishes as though they are major battles and ones that demonstrate the entirety of the discord. It is way too early to know any of this. The players are still learning their roles, making mistakes and wondering how and when the right things will fall into place. Meanwhile, we all need to take a collective breath.

When Al Qaeda destroyed the World Trade Center and attacked the Pentagon, we didn't know what was happening and by whom. We had to learn that in a hurry and piece together enough facts to pull together a plan of defense as well as a response to the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. We took American military forces to Afghanistan to chase down Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Lama.  We were fighting a war outside of our borders but protecting them nonetheless, and doing so in foreign territory with hastily gained approval to do so. We needed and acquired the help of other nations in the region (Pakistan) to use their lands as staging areas. We transported materiel and troops to the region to engage the ‘enemy’ wherever he was. We had to invent the whole procedural protocol then, and we are in the midst of doing the same with ISIS.

This is not a political football for politicians to toss around. This is not a Saturday afternoon touch game of football. All those who think it is, grow up! And take a deep breath. You are entering a different time zone and era. It is fraught with danger and unknowns.

I hope we don’t see this as an adventure. Rather, I pray we see this challenge as a new way of engaging the world in building peace from ignorance and cultural collisions.

America should not engage this maelstrom on its own. The fight belongs to the world. It is an issue that will not go away.  Our attention and intellect is called to focus on this issue. At the end of all the skirmishes, battles and disastrous results of war, we need to clearly see a vision of peace and comity. What will quell the unrest of the ISIS warriors? What will convert them if anything? How do we build peace upon this disturbed soil?

Surely we cannot bludgeon our way to peace or expect that peace to last.

We need new people of goodwill and strong minds to step up and replace all those who argue for war and death out of spite. Good and Evil?  Certainly. But I believe fervently that we can make a lasting peace. It will take time and patience.  And goodwill. And a calming of our instinct for reprisal and revenge.

October 16, 2014