(My teacher wanted us to apply Gandhi's satyagrajah nonviolent protests to America's retaliation to 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan, the following was my response.)
The problem with entire assignment is that the American government is taking on Terrorists, not an organized and recognized nation like Gandhi did in India's bid for freedom. Al-Quida has shown itself to have extremists views which do not reflect the beliefs of mainstream Muslims thus creating a highly volatile, violent, and prejudice sect of Islamic society which refuses to negotiate or act in a humane manner toward its own people let alone to foreign countries and cultures.
They have shown that they have very little regard for fellow Muslims, freedoms and power with in Al-quida influenced nations are beset by tribal prejudice, women in both the Muslim world as well as India have little to no freedoms, their worth and rights only defined in so far as it relates to a man, and worst of all Al-Quida’s chosen understanding of the 6th pillar of islam also known as Jihad is not a great spiritual struggle but a license to kill.
Many other nations that were not involved in America’s war on terror have been the target of Al-quidas extremist religious killing machine, and even if America had not gotten involved in the middle east whatsoever I believe Americans would still have suffered at the hands of these blood thirsty monsters. That’s right MONSTERS.
You wish for me to express that if America had not gotten involved in the middle east using the excuse of possible biological weapons then the Taliban and Al-Quida would not have sought to attack us. This is frankly the most naive stance I have heard and I am sick of hearing this throwback peaceful flowerchild hippy nonsense that everything will be alright if we “make love not war man”. Peaceful resistance in the face of an unreasonable and righteous enemy will only lead to the slaughter of innocence.
Some people are simply violent and unreasonable, these people are also usually religious fundamentalists who believe their license to kill is given to them directly from God. This is what the Taliban and Al-quida are, and it was only a matter of time before Americans living abroad or peaceful Americans at home, or one of our Allies would have (and indeed did) suffer at the hands of these agents of Terror.
Satyagrajah was part in parcel a creation based on the Muslim Jihad, but instead of taking it to the Al-Quida level of suicide bombing the “infidel” Gandhi wanted to discuss the greater struggle toward holy purity of India and the Indian people. To drive out the British Infidel to unite India under one banner, one brotherhood standing strong against foreign invaders. His teachings of peaceful resistance only worked because the British were facing Hitler and World War Two just like the real reason why the Colonialist Americans won the revolutionary war was because the British were facing a closer war against Napoleon, which was also why the Americans were able to obtain French ships which essentially cut off the British from the American ports in a form of threat and blockade. .
We can not apply the ideals and mindset of that day and situation to America’s war on terror as that would be like saying if the Jews and the Brits had just surrendered to Hitler like Gandhi told them to in his letter in 1942 that everything would have been ok.
Was America’s war on terror a double duty offensive fueled by our need for oil. Yes, of course it is, however this is the real world and in the real world America’s economy had been based on the fact that all crude oil sales had to be made in dollars, not Euro’s or rupee’s or swiss franks, but dollars. This meant America got a cut of every crude oil sale that was made no matter where the oil came from or went to. Thats called a monopoly kids and thats why America enjoyed a booming economy and our big cars for so long. When this rule of petrodollars ended America went to war, but that does not mean the only reason for that war was money.
Ideologically speaking America views itself as the great hero, the protector of the underdogs of the world, and as the only nation to ever to use an atomic bomb in actual combat we carry a considerably large stick. The threat of America has always been enough to get most countries in line to our more democratic view points, whether or not you agree with American politics one can not deny that no matter how misguided this ideology which we call “Manifest Destiny” has helped to bring countries that faced isolation, and suffering into the modern age.
Should we have stayed out of Afghanistan and let the terrorists reign supreme letting them plot and plan to take over more countries, to subjugate, mutilate, and miseducate their people? To kill and attack little girls like Malala Yousafzai who only wants to go to school peacefully without threat of bombings or being poisoned, something which these terrorists do daily in Afghanistan. Do we negotiate with these kind of people? Do we sit idly by and walk through the opium fields holding hands and make peaceful Heroin?
I’m sorry Gandhi’s peace was a product of time and chance, nothing more and nothing less. He got lucky because Hitler was on the march. This does not mean that Gandhi’s heart was not in the right place and he was not an excellent example to others because he was, but that simply put it was not because of Gandhi that India was freed, but that a greater and more imminent threat of violence at home presented itself to the British and made india not worth holding.
America’s occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq may not be for the purest of reasons and it may all end in nothing, but at least it is better than the banality of evil.
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