Japanese

"The Never Enging Spiral"

Terror. What may be summed up in one word may mean a lot more these days. Since the attack on 9/11, US government has introduced a new meaning to terror: an ultimate reason to justify the atrocities of war. As I watched the unfolding of events in Iraq, through the biased media and also through the reports from NGO's, I could not help but think that history does indeed repeat itself. President George Bush called his troops "Crusaders", but later withdrew the comment after enormous repulsion from the world, especially from the Middle East nations. Let us focus on this rather imprudent comment.

It was back in 11th century (A.D.1096-1099) when the first crusades took place. A religious armed force was established in an attempt to fulfill their sacred vow to deliver Jerusalem from the tyrannies of Muslims. What started out as a great moral cause have eventually turned out to be one of the most atrocious and barbaric campaign, where in most cases feudal lords strived to find riches in conquered cities, and devout soldiers ending up being looted or lost their lives along the way. It is written that more than 70,000 Muslims were tortured and killed during this campaign, founding the deep origin of hatred and terror between the Occident and the Middle East. The fundamental mistrust between the Muslims and Christian is not only based on ignorance and indifference but also on deep historical background. It is not surprising that, to this day, what is widely known as Red Cross to rest of the world is not represented in Middle East as such, but with nomenclature such as New Red Crescent.

Does this sound familiar to you? Almost ten centuries later, the world is facing yet another ordeal strikingly resembling the dark history of crusades. We should learn by now that the war in Iraq is never a solution, but a beginning of an interminable misfortune, a downward spiral of movement that undermines the very existence of mankind. Pope John Paul II of the Vatican City State made an open speech finally officially admitting the fatal mistake of the crusades and worked to convince US not to initiate attack on Iraq, despite to little avail. Ignorance and indifference is the root cause of terror. War is never a solution, but a catalyst for yet another terror. And how do we justify the Japanese government's decision to dispatch self-defense force to aid this cause? Is this the same democracy that America is preaching the world? Or is it hypocrisy? Are we politically hostage to America? Are we afraid to say no? Haven't we learned a lesson from WWII? Or are we concerned enough to take some action? Our growing list of why's has yet to be answered. (End)