Tannishblog

In light of our current focus on Israel and Lebanon (and our ignoring Iraq and Afghanistan), I bring to you, via my weekly email from Dzogchen.org , a Buddhist perspective on war. This may explain why I'm so "far-left" on the issue, or why there's never been a war to enforce or to indoctrinate people into Buddhism.

……. At the end of the talk someone from the audience
asked the Dalai Lama,
"Why didn't you fight back against the Chinese?"
The Dalai Lama looked down,
swung his feet just a bit, then looked back up at us
and said with a gentle smile,
"Well, war is obsolete, you know."
Then, after a few moments, his face grave, he said,
"Of course the mind can rationalize fighting back…
but the heart, the heart would never understand.
Then you would be divided in yourself,
the heart and the mind, and the war would be inside you."

 How refreshing!

Does anyone else thing this odd? Kofi Annan and Tony Blair calling for an international "stabilization force" to calm the hostilities bewteen Israel and the Hezbollah. Roll these word around your skull a minute… forced stabilization, hmm… Is this a new oxymoron?

Isn’t that just what the US is trying to do in Iraq after pulling the plugs on the establishment over there? Yes, Saddam was a bad boy - whatever, but he had control. There’s been none of that since we got involved. And in Afghanistan, forced stabilization is unraveling as the Taliban begins a rebound. The immortal words "But that trick never works," apply here.

Blair’s statement -

"The only way we are going to get a cessation of hostilities is the deployment of an international force," Blair said at a news conference in St. Petersburg at the end of the G-8 summit.

- is not necessarily true. Not that I endorse this, but hostilities would end when one side wins. Israel has a habit of winning the wars they fight. If Hezbollah insists on firing rockets into a sovereign state, insists on clinging to their terrorist reputation despite inroads toward civility, then they deserve what they get. Unfortunately for them, Israel hits what it’s aiming at.

I would love to see a peaceful solution. Bringing in a third group to the  party, armed and armored, can only confuse the situation. Doing so cannot bring peace or stability. Unless one considers the situation stabilized as a result of mutual annihilation.

Any UN "stabilization" forces would only be able to witness events, like having front row seats to the execution.