March 18, 2003 by lonbud

The Moment of Truth

We have arrived at the historical juncture the world has
been anticipating for months. It’s now time for all players to show
their cards, time to open the envelope and find out who the
winners are and who has lost. It is time to look deep inside and
discover the truth of what is about to happen in Iraq, in the
United States, and all over the globe.

I have been opposed to military action against Iraq and opposed
to military action in the so-called war on terrorism from the start of the earnest debate on September 11, 2001. My opposition to violent solutions for the very real, very dangerous instability in the geopolitical foundation of our world stems from a belief in and an understanding of the Buddhist Law of Karma.

No amount of rhetoric, debate, or evidence of Saddam Hussein’s threat to the peace and security of the world could ever sway me from the
position that says violence is not the answer.

Reasonable people may disagree with me and it seems clear: those in charge of making policy decisions for the government of the United States
do.

However, I thought it might be useful to examine some of the
things we know to be true in these final moments before the
orders are given to fire:

• What we know to be true is that innocent people will die in this war.
• What we know to be true is that our government has committed to spending billions of dollars it doesn’t have in the effort to overthrow a detestable tyrant to whom it gave millions of dollars worth of arms and technology less than twenty years ago.
• What we know to be true is that American service personnel will die in this war and that some of them will be killed by American service personnel.
• We also know other American service personnel will return to the United States, where they will develop debilitating physical and mental conditions they will then spend years trying to get treated and recognized as having been caused by their fighting in this war.
• What we know to be true is that getting rid of Saddam Hussein will not end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people, will not bring gasoline prices back to $1 a gallon, will not ensure our energy independence, will not put an end to terrorist activity in other parts of the world, will not address the increasing problem of nuclear proliferation, and finally, most certainly of all, will not make the United States any safer or more secure than it is today.

What we know to be true is we have no idea what is going to
happen once the shooting starts, no idea what is going to happen
once the war is over, and no idea how long it might be before a
new threat to peace and security will have us facing these same
uncertainties all over again.

So, yes, we have reached the moment of truth. And the truth is
I am unspeakably sad and ashamed that the American people
have allowed an unelected, half-literate, frat boy and his smug,
narrow-minded, megalomaniacal advisers to put the world on the
brink of war.

I’m sad and ashamed that millions of people demonstrating across the globe against this war in the past few months have been ignored by the leaders of the world community and that we stand more prepared to risk the danger and uncertainty of going to war than to risk the danger and
uncertainty of trying to find non-violent solutions to the problems we face.

We have reached the moment of truth and the truth hurts.