Important Sanskritist Addresses Iraq War Drive

[Guest guest]

Because Robert E. Goodwin stands in the formidable Sanskritist lineage of David

Pingree (whose important research into the historical mathematical and

astronomical context of Jyotisha have brought considerable resources to the

academic table), I thought there might be an unusual but fitting synchronicity

in posting REG's article on the Iraq matter to this list. I would not ever

have come to Jyotir Vidya were it not for REG (or as he prefers, Steve) and his

rigorous but always irrepressibly compassionate, kind and (I will say it),

*Godly* skills at guiding me and all his students through the mahaaratnakosha

(super treasury) of Sanskrit language and literature. (Not that I can yet in

any way claim a place in that academic lineage -- nor yet that of Jyotish.)

I imagine a surreally bizarre scenario in which GWB could have, say, studied

with Pingree or hung out with Goodwin instead of learning from the business

profs he ended up with in different but possibly similar-looking ivy-covered

buildings.

I know posting this will very likely piss people off, but it's really short, and

I am not famous for my spam recipes.

The following article appeared in the September 19, 2002 edition of _The

Saratogian_ (Saratoga Springs, NY) as a Reader's View opinion piece.

US Policy on Iraq

by Robert E. Goodwin

US political leadership seems to me to be making a serious mistake in its

current obsession with attacking Iraq. Is this the most important problem we

face in the world today? What about world poverty and the hundreds of millions

of people who have no vested interest in the status quo? Will bombing Iraq

bring about more or less world sta-bility even with respect to terrorism?

Where is the 'hearts and minds' component of our war on terror? We find it

very hard to believe that there are people 'out there' who hate us. We call

them evil, haters of freedom, cowards, murderers, etc. But evil operates in a

historical context. There is a cynical malevolence in terrorism, but certain

vulnerable people-young men, especially-can be persuaded that acts of political

terror against ci-vilians are heroic and self-sacrificing. They don't hate

freedom; they hate what they per-ceive as murderous injustice to their group,

an insult to their pride, and cross over the line of normal moral-social

inhibitions that keep our more dangerous instincts in check. Evil is a complex

phenomenon-as is good. Like it or not, there are many fundamentally de-cent

people 'out there'-people who would never themselves commit a terrorist act-who

regard the US as a world bully, and some of them have taken grim comfort from

the terrorist attacks of 9/11. At the very least the US has a PR problem.

The US has to make decisions that set good precedent for international behavior.

It's a question of what kind of world we want to live in and leave for future

generations. Do we want a world dictated by the concerns of the powerful just

because we happen to be powerful? Don't we have an interest in furthering the

establishment of and adherence to international laws and the eventual creation

of a democratic world order? US should be tough, but also imaginative,

intelligent, and responsible. Politics may be the art of arm-twisting, but the

true leader is a builder of bridges, a healer of wounds, and a good listener.

If we go through with a preemptive strike on Iraq, contemptuously rejecting a

UN-mediated diplomatic solution, we give precedent for rash action in other

potentially explosive situations, such as the India-Pakistan stand-off over

Kashmir. We all know from daily life that power tends to make people

over-confident, arrogant, insensitive. Greek tragedy-foundational literature

for western civilization-is based on this premise and its corollary: the tragic

downfall of greatness. There need to be checks and balances on American power,

for our own good as well as others'. Bomb Iraq? Not without win-ning hearts

and minds. And not without accepting the possibility of tragic consequences.

Copyright © 2002 by The Saratogian. All rights reserved.