On Defeating Terror

Our president tells us that we are engaged in a global war on terror. If this is true, then one must be very careful how to define a war against a non-human enemy. For example, it is not physically possible to drop a bomb on terror.

The long term strategy must involve removing the causes of terror, or else the current plan of simply dealing with the symptoms (capturing and/or killing terrorists) will eventually, and tragically, prove futile. Only after the causes of terror are removed or neutralized, can one really begin to make any meaningful progress against terror.

The root causes of terror are many ... greed, ignorance, anger, frustration, hatred, rage, and on, but the way I see it, they all boil down to one thing: fear. Fear, I believe, is the root of all terror. Therefore to defeat terror, one must first defeat fear.

Since we are waging war on abstractions, we might as well also declare a global war on fear. But fear is easier to defeat than terror. Fear is, almost always, a fear of the unknown. Love, I believe, is the antidote: Love can always dispel fear. Whether we are aware of it or not, unlimited quantities of Love are available to each and every one of us. By loving ourselves and loving each other, we could, as a species, conquer fear literally overnight.

Once fear has been defeated, any war on terror could be easily won, because terror would dry up, with no fear to fuel it. With fear and terror defeated, we would finally be able to propel ourselves into the future that is waiting for us, a future that is peaceful and prosperous.

Hack away at the roots of terror by loving yourself, and loving each other. Tear down the walls of fear and separation by building bridges of Love and compassion. Dissolve fragments of ignorance in a crystal clear pool of understanding and higher consciousness.

World peace is possible. Winning the war on terror is possible, if we all do our part to ensure victory by confronting terror at a causal level. It is up to each and every one of us to eradicate fear with the power of Love. With Love, we will transform this beautiful planet into the Earthly paradise that it could and should be: a world free from fear, free from ignorance, and free from terror.

Don
9/24/2003