Ra's Sharebook 

A friend of mine recently pointed out something very true - that most people who encourage wars are cowardly. I live in a place that has gone to "pre-emptive war". That means that we attacked a country that had not directly harmed us, because we thought they might be dangerous. That was an act of cowardice. We attacked them, because we were too cowardly to let them be, because maybe they might someday be harmful.

Many people are now trying to push for wars with more countries that have not directly harmed us. They claim that they might someday have dangerous weapons. Maybe they are working on them. The evidence isn't that they are, but they could be. And if they aren't now, they might someday. So, people want to go to war with them, because they are afraid that someday they might be powerful and then might someday be dangerous to us. This is cowardice.

I live in a country that has decided that you do not have the right to ride on an airplane without either having a picture of yourself taken naked or being molested. The machines used to take the pictures come in two types and one of the types is a known cancer risk. There is no evidence that these searches make us safer, but they make people feel safer. We have thrown away our right to basic decency. This is cowardice.

If there are other humans in the world, then we do run a risk from them. Humans are dangerous animals. Any human might pose a threat to you. But killing off all possible threats is not acceptable. Just as it is not acceptable to lock people away into prisons just because they might someday commit a crime. We must learn to accept reasonable dangers. Most people manage this every day. If you drive a car, you run a significant risk of being in a car accident. Deaths by car accidents are far higher than deaths by terrorism or murder. Yet most people are not scared of driving a car or having roads with other drivers near them. They understand that in order to have a life worth living, you must accept some degree of reasonable risk.

Yet, if they can decrease the risks to them or even feel like they have while not actually making themselves safer, then they are willing to harm or even kill others. I do not know why so many people are so afraid of other people that they cannot simply accept and live with the risk the way they accept and live with cars. I do not know how to give the people of my country courage. But I refuse to sit by as they try to harm others through their cowardice and not call them out for their true motivation.