Finding the Entrance

I must posit here that we have all collectively entered a kind of perpetual motion machine. There is literally no end to it. It has no hallowed purpose. There is only continued violence simply for violence’s sake. In order to address the problem, we must examine how we got here. And, then, walk ourselves painstakingly back and hope of finding the entrance.

The temptation for us is to accept that it has always been this way. But that would be wrong. I remember vacationing in Kashmir on a houseboat on Dal Lake back in the early 70’s. Friends of mine traveled through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq and reported having had a wonderful time. My senior year in high school, our class hosted two foreign exchange students – one from Germany and one from Afghanistan – both of whom became close friends. Something has changed in the meantime. It behooves us to define precisely what this is.

We might begin – as our president Obama has often suggested – that we confront all our enemies face to face in a room and ask them what it is they want. Islamists would say that they want all the unbelievers to abandon their 'evil' ways and submit to their concept of God. Communists would say they want a central governmental authority that would require everyone to submit to the dictates of a single all-powerful state. These in a nutshell are the demands of our enemies. The common bond between them is ‘submission’. Never mind (for now), that both these goals are unachievable and that, even if they were (achievable), all hell would soon break loose between whatever remains.

India has been declared an enemy by Pakistan only in the sense that Pakistani Islamists see her as having aligned herself with western values – democracy and capitalism. Both these concepts fall under the heading of ‘evil’ in the Islamic and communist lexicons. As both - the Islamic vision of the world as well as the communist vision - are in essence unattainable, the conflict must continue endlessly.

The pressure has been building on all parties to show results. The West is tired, and is quite prepared to submit in this, what has become a war of attrition. Obama’s election represents a capitulation to both communism and to Islam. However, a powerful backlash is presently building. The breach will come if and when Israel acts or falls. Expect all-out war. In war, reason stops. All that matters is survival.

How India ends up after all this depends on how the (I Ching) yarrow stalks happen to arrange themselves. America as she has been may disappear - or she may not. One thing is for certain, everyone will be greatly diminished. It’ll be the perfect time to start over.