Today's MOZEN: Will It Never End?

Photo T. Camus, AP. Words F. LoBuono

NOTHING HAPPENS IN A VACUUM.

Nothing.

The latest brutal, barbaric attack on innocent civilians in Paris is nothing short of an abomination. The calculated cruelty of the attacks produces a visceral reaction - it makes me sick to my stomach, literally. I KNOW that the souls of these men will never reach the paradise promised them by their sick and misguided leaders. Rather than cavorting with many blue-eyed virgins, their souls are doomed to never find peace. Be that as it may, it is still important to understand that THEY believed what they did was right.

Why is it important to understand rather then simply condemn them and seek mindless revenge?

Not only is revenge immoral, IT'S exactly what the terrorists WANT us to do. We would be playing right into their hands.

Why?

Because NOTHING HAPPENS IN A VACUUM.

Allow me to explain. Most of these men have become radicalized by their own brutal treatment at the hands of so-called Western Powers, including France. For decades we have unleashed shock and awe on the parts of the world where these men come from. A war of ideals has been happening for eons. But, really, at this point, no one is even sure how it all began! They attack us, we attack them and on and on. For the most part, the West's recent violence is in response to Muslim extremism. Still, for all of our justification and all of our efforts to prevent civilian casualties in this "war without borders", collateral damage is unavoidable. Collateral Damage is a nice, clean military term for the mindless deaths of thousands of innocent civilians who are unlucky enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Many of these "precision" strikes are carried out by mindless, faceless drone aircraft. I'm sure that the attackers in Paris all have personal experience with this type of violence, either directly or through family and friends. We have all seen the aftermath of one of our military strikes on TV. Most of these men have experienced that horror firsthand. THIS is what radicalizes them. They see death among innocents in their own communities and desire to bring the same destruction to those they believe perpetrate it. This is the message they sent in Paris - OUR people have no quality of life, so neither shall you! We KNOW terror and, now, so shall you.

The recent drone strike that killed the infamous, brutal Jihadi John, Mohammed Emwazi, is a prime example. Emwazi was a Kuwaiti born young man raised in London. He attended school and got a degree from a London university in computer science. He had even begun a promising career as an IT specialist. At one point, while on vacation in Africa, for unknown reasons, he was arrested and detained. Although never charged with any crime, Emwazi was held naked and abused in a jail cell for 24 hours. According to friends who knew him, this incident radicalized Emwazi and he never went back to his "old" life. He created a "new" one under ISIL as its chief executioner. In a press conference regarding the attack, military spokesman Col. Steve Warren said this: We have been following this target for some time. And, when the opportunity presented itself for minimal civilian casualties, we took the shot.

There are two key points to be made here; One. they did not kill a person, they attacked a "target". Two. Yes, we got the bad guy and, hopefully, we didn't kill other, innocent people in the process. Really. Think about it.

NOTHING HAPPENS IN A VACUUM.

So, now, we are stuck in this ENDLESS cycle of violence. AND, it is ultimately what the terrorists supported by ISIL want. They want to force a final confrontation between ideologies. In other words, they are fine with US vs THEM for final control of the planet. They are not afraid of the outcome. But, neither are we! Therefore, they have set the stage for the Apocalypse fulfilling many a prophesy!
There are hawks in the West who would fall right into their hands and charge willy-nilly into that black hole of endless violence - even at the peril of the whole world. So, we get an eye for an eye leaving the whole world (or, what's left of it) blind.

Look, I am not defending their actions. In fact, I condemn them with my entire being! I just feel it is important to understand that if we seek true justice and a LASTING peace we need to know WHY these things happen. We can't just call them mindless animals and seek blind revenge. Because they are not. They are human beings who in their own horrible, misguided way believe that they took lives and gave their own for THEIR cause. MANY will see them as martyrs. Besides revenge is not only morally wrong, it plays right into their hands! They seem to relish violence. We need to abhor it.

No, we cannot sit idly buy why radical extremism continues to take innocent lives. Something must be done and ISIL must be stopped. How we do it will make all the difference. Therefore, at this most difficult time, I urge caution. Let us seek justice and not carnal revenge. We should not, cannot, allow ALL Muslims to be painted with such a broad brush. It will not help. It will just create even more heartache. It must stop. ALL of it.