A Paradoxical World

At a time when eighty nations compete in the winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy, as a symbol of global unity, political intrigue, terrorism, and intolerance dominate the world’s headlines.

We live in a paradoxical world, you and me. We say we value liberty, and then use it to mock our enemies (Danish newspapers satirizing the Prophet Mohammad).

We say we love freedom, and then use force to promote it (Operation Iraqi Freedom).

We say we use justice and the rule of law as our standards, and then exercise torture and secrecy (Abu Grahib and CIA “rendition”).

We promote free elections, and then fail to recognize and support the winning, majoritarian party (Hamas).

We say we want to secure peace, and then use war to justify pre-emption (Iraq).

We claim that our military operates by rules of engagement that attempts to prevent harming the innocent, and then we drop smart bombs that kill more innocent people than our enemies (CIA operation to bomb our enemies in Pakistan).

Can we truly say we represent the best of what democracy has to offer?

It is not a surprise to me why al-Qaeda and our other enemies despise us. While we continue to have the audacity to tell our enemies to change, we have lost our credibility by having failed to abide by our own principles and standards. It is time for Washington to step down from its pedestal and re-examine and re-evaluate its actions. This scripture comes to mind:

“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5)

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