Last week in a post I explored some news articles that illustrated the web of connections between terrorism, global warming, the hungry, the thirsty and the economy. Today the news has shown us the issue is yet more complicated.

In an AP article today (11.01.07) retired Army Gen. John Abizaid, the former commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, stated the following.

"I'm not saying this is a war for oil, but I am saying that oil fuels an awful lot of geopolitical moves that political powers may have there," Abizaid said. "And it is absolutely essential that we in the United States of America figure out how, in the long run, to lessen our dependency on foreign energy."

The complexity of this was explored in my first post about Connections last week. But unfortunately it gets more complicated.

Gen. Abizaid continued,

"Over time, we will have to shift the burden of the military fight from our forces directly to regional forces, and we will have to play an indirect role, but we shouldn't assume for even a minute that in the next 25 to 50 years the American military might be able to come home, relax and take it easy, because the strategic situation in the region doesn't seem to show that as being possible."

Why not?

The rise of Sunni extremism, burgeoning Shiite extremism, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the world economy's dependency on Mideast oil will keep Americans in the Middle East for a long time, he said.

And what is the US doing to address these issues?

"I would characterize what we're doing now as 80 percent military, 20 percent diplomatic, economic, political, educational, informational, intelligence, etc.," Abizaid said. "You've got to take that equation and change it. Make it 80 percent those other things."

I missed how they are going to address the rising religious extremism that he feels are contributing to the US forces being there another 25 to 50 years. I am afraid the general has failed to look at the whole of the situation and see the connection and impact of belief and more importantly how to deal with fundamentalist and extremist. The US ignored the religious issues going into Iraq and continues to totally misunderstand the issue years and thousands of lives later.

Education and diplomacy will not work. A fundamentalist believes that they have the fundamental 'truth' as they see it and define it. So rarely does a fundamentalist of any stripe see the need to change or want to change or be educated or negotiate - they already have the 'truth.' Indeed for a religious fundamentalist to change is apostasy leading to eternal damnation (or a variation of such as they define it) so change is not even an option.

The most powerful army in the world is not doing too well at forcing the fundamentalist to change. The harder one attempts to force change on fundamentalist the more devoted they, individually and as a society become - committed to not changing, at any costs.

Religious fundamentalist especially see suffering as validation of the rightness and righteousness of their cause. Hence it is almost impossible for externally imposed forces to become a compelling reason for them to want to change, instead it confirms their rightness.

And a critical point seems to be missed. For a fundamentalist who has suffered for their beliefs or has had family members die for their beliefs - to leave their views, to change their beliefs would be to invalidate the value of the suffering and deaths that have happened. The pain of accepting the possibility of being wrong propels many to become even more hardened in their views - they can't be wrong - they could not have suffered for nothing - their family and friends did not die in vain. God, Allah or whoever they serve will reward them.

Is the situation hopeless? No, but there is no easy fast resolution. If a compelling reason manifests itself which is not perceived as act of persecution arises (floods, famine, drought, or even extreme financial hardships etc.) there can come a point where a fundamentalist can be open to dialog. But when this opportunity arises it must be handled with the upmost awareness, sensitivity and care.

In these rare instances common ground must be found and built upon, this can happen only when we truly see the whole of the situation. When we can establish areas of our shared humanity we can start the process of building connections, one connection can lead to another and then another and at times remarkable results are achieved.

Though extremely rare, there is another manner in which an external compelling reason can become a catalyst for the desire to change to emerge from fundamentalist. This is when they can observe, without force, that another approach to life provides real benefits (as they view them) that are dramatically superior to their current belief systems and activities.

I am not too sure that another 25 to 50 years of occupation by a foreign and to them, heathen army will show this.

In Connections (Part 1) last week I connected the dots showing how terrorism, global warming, the hungry, the thirsty and the economy are all connected. Gen. Abizaid experiences lead to his comments which reinforced the vital need to decrease our dependence on oil. He connected some of the local dots recognizing that what was needed is a multi-nodal approach; "diplomatic, economic, political, educational, informational, intelligence, etc." 

But I am afraid that there is more yet to the whole of the situation. Until we truly and accurately understand the whole of the beliefs and the factors driving the extremist, the actions taken to solve the problems may indeed make them worse.

Spherical,
Phil

It is transformational to see whole