Losing a Cosmic War -- US vs. the "Terrorists"

How would you describe the war in Iraq, and more importantly, the "War Against Terror"? If you listen closely to the rhetoric, you'll hear the distinct tones of a cosmic war, a war in the heavens between good and evil, us and them. When President Bush years ago announced the "War on Terror" in response to 9-11 he had a "slip" of the tongue and spoke of a crusade. You don't think that word usage made the papers in the Middle East?

This morning Reza Aslan spoke to the monthly Interfaith Breakfast at the University Religious Center at UCSB (of which I'm Board President). Reza is author of the highly regard book, No God, but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam. He is also a Ph.D. student in the Sociology of Religion at UCSB. His message is quite poignant -- we are engaging in a cosmic war and cosmic wars can't be won. When our leaders speak in terms of a war against evil, we play right into the hands of the Osama Bin Laden's. Our current policies regarding terror, one that lumps into one pot Islamic groups from al Queda to Hamas and Hezbollah, we suggest that there is one vast conspiracy of terror aimed at us and our "values." But such is not the case. Some are, some aren't, but we have named them our enemies even if they've never named us as theirs. When we put the Islamic world to a choice -- choose America or choose the Jihadists we put them in an untenable position of having to choose between a West they're not comfortable with or fellow Islamic believers, even ones they disagree with -- they will ultimately choose a way that's opposed to what we want. It doesn't have to be that way, but we've created an unnecessary choice.

So, what is the answer. In many ways Reza suggests a path of demythologizing the conflict. Stop talking in cosmic terms and in religious terms. This isn't a religious war, it's about many other things. By putting a religious spin to these we put this ultimately into a battle between Islam and the "Judeo-Christian world" -- as former Pentagon employee General Boykin liked to put it. The Islamic world, one that's no more monolithic than the "Christian" world hears this and perceives that we're at war with Islam.

Aslan said quite clearly, if we try to engage in a cosmic war we'll lose. When fighting such a war casualties don't matter. It's all about ideology and about identity!

Well that's more than I can even digest in one post. Consider however this question -- can we win a cosmic war?

Comments

Anonymous said…
I absolutely agree--but how can the voice of reason be heard when the voices of conflict are shouting so loudly?
Robert Cornwall said…
Well, the scary part of this right now is that this voice has to come from the top. It's not our voice that will make a difference, it must come from a government official. Reza said that when Gen. Boykin was making his rounds calling this a battle between Jesus and Satan -- Judeo-Christian world versus Islamic world, no one reprimanded him, no one, neither Rumsfeld nor Bush said we categorically disagree. Now Robert Gates removed him, but now that's a bit late.

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