Between Iraq and ... a Hard Place
Posted: January 3rd, 2005, 9:20 pm
A few days ago, the Bangor (Maine) Daily News headline read “Mainers Killed in Iraq”. The story was about two Maine citizens who were killed in the bomb attack in Mosul and the ten others who were injured. These twelve may not have been the first Maine casualties in Iraq, but they are the first I am aware of.
Now, of course, I know that there is nothing special about Mainers dying in Iraq, not when more than a thousand Americans have already died there, tens of thousands been wounded, and nobody knows how many Iraqis killed or injured. But I live in Maine, and so, as I walked past the news stand in the supermarket that morning, the headline shouted out at me particularly loudly, and made it personal.
As a seeker, and a self-described monk, my first instinct as regards the war in Iraq and politics generally, is to remember the Teacher’s advice, “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”. And whenever I ignore it (which, I confess, is often), I am soon reminded of Thomas Merton’s plaint, spoken in response to his active opposition to the Vietnam War (during which, as it happens, I was in uniform), “I’m so tired of being angry”.
In the book "I Am That", Nisargadatta is often asked about the violence being exchanged at that time (and still?) between India and Pakistan in Kashmir. While I don't dare put words in the Teacher's mouth, he seems to me to be saying, "First, find the violence within yourself, and come to terms with that. Then, look abroad, and see what you see". Or, who was it who said, "You cannot give what you do not have"?
Another tough nut.