In Mario Puzo’s brilliant novel, “The Godfather,” the mafia leaders meet
for a critical negotiation to stop the fighting between families and to end the
senseless bloodshed. In a room full of the men who wielded the most power a
truce was established. Puzo writes, “The other Dons in the room applauded and
rose to shake hands with everybody in sight and to congratulate Don Corleone
and Don Tattaglia on their new friendship. It was not perhaps the warmest
friendship in the world, they would not send each other Christmas gift
greetings, but they would not murder each other. That was friendship enough in
this world, all that was needed.”
This is in a strange way what international political diplomacy is
about. It is sitting down with your enemies and trying to find a way to keep
from killing each other. It is setting up rules and codes of conduct and lines
that can’t be crossed, as well as giving one another something in return, in
order to establish an atmosphere of peaceful tolerance.
It is not bullying the other side. It is not making outrageous threats.
It is not spitting in the face of the enemy. It is using intelligent, well
thought out agreements that both sides are willing to abide by.
This is what the Obama administration is attempting to do with Iran. We
do not own the world. It is the height of ignorance, and honestly, just dull immature thinking, to think we do. We exist in a global village whether we like
it or not. And as intelligent people we should be willing to understand the
culture, the religion, the politics, and the philosophy of life of other
nations, even those we consider enemies. It is lazy indifference and petty
arrogance to be disinterested in doing that at a time when the world needs
cooperation and a willingness among nations to mutually work together.
We don’t have to all be Christians. We don’t have to all be Muslims. Or
Jews. Or any other religion. We don’t all have to be democratic nations or
dictatorships or monarchies. It is possible for the nations of the world to be
who they choose to be without judgment or coercion to be something else.
But much of the chaos in the world today, especially in the Middle
East, is due to this notion that all nations must be one thing, whether it is
Western democracy, or Islamic rule, or Jewish control. And a lot of longtime US
meddling into other nations in an attempt to overthrow dictatorships and insert
democracies which would then be in our interest to boost our way of life has
brought us to where we are today.
America doesn’t want to be told by Islamic mullahs how to live our lives
and Islamic nations don’t want to be told by American Christian fundamentalists
or politicians how to live theirs. There is no reason why all nations can’t
tolerate differences and allow one another to pursue their own beliefs and
way of life.
Injustice, brutality, cruel acts of inhumanity happen in every single
nation on the globe, including ours. We do not have clean hands. We’re not a
pure people. Am I glad to live in America? Yes, absolutely. I love my country.
I want it to be better. But I’m not naive enough to believe my country is the
only right nation in the world and every other nation needs to be like ours. We
have a lot to be proud of, but we also have much to be ashamed of.
Conservative politicians these days like to be identified with the
Christian faith. And yet it was Jesus who famously said, “Blessed are the
peacemakers for they will be called the children of God.” Why is that not ever
quoted by conservatives today? Why is that not considered a valuable goal of
diplomacy? Isn’t the struggle to make peace more worthy than the simple act of
war?
It has been said that just two things make a nation famous; it being
noble or it being notorious. We have leaders today who still cherish the USA being
the first. Why would we then want to follow leaders who are comfortable making
us the second?
© 2015 Timothy Moody
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