http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/opinion/21daly.html
Killing Won't Win This War
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28165104/
Hooked on Chill Pills in War-Torn Gaza
http://wakeupfromyourslumber.blogspot.com/2009/03/israelis-in-goa-israel-is-empty-place.html
Soldiers Leave Israel and Travel to India
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/05/army.suicides/index.html
Rate of Suicide for U.S. Military at Record High
16,000 soldiers to Afghanistan. 50,000 soldiers to stay in Iraq. The Surge. Car bomb. Insurgents. These are all words we inject into our national conversation on foreign policy to suggest our intimacy with current events. But how intimate are we really? What is the depth of our understanding on what is happening on the frontlines which our military live and breathe every day? Any patriotic American will mouth the words that of course they support our heroic troops. But ultimately, words mean absolutely nothing. It is not what you say, it is what you do. So, I have an idea.
What if every single citizen of the United States had to serve in combat for just one day of their lives? It becomes very difficult to numbly order people off to protect, serve, and take life in the name of a flag, if you have seen with your own eyes what it is to watch someone cough on their own blood and die right in front of you. Or, to consider the fact it could be your life that goes down in the click and whir of a grenade landing beside your left foot. I do believe we would be infinitely less cavalier about foreign policy and any military decisions we might make if we had a clearer comprehension of exactly what was at stake. I quote, with great respect, the words of a U.S. marine, "For those who fight for it... life has a special flavor the protected never know."
The reality is, the great number of people in this nation will never see combat. In fact, they will never even see the inside of a boxing ring. Until you feel the impact of your own skin crashing into the blood and bones of another life, and hearing the unmistakable sound that echoes through you... then you cannot possibly know what war entails. It is an immediacy, a fragility, an impossible endurance; and a blinding flash of seeing the both the animal and the divine in the eyes of the person in front of you whose sweat you can smell smeared all over your own skin.
The truth is that understanding the art of boxing may, conceptually, hold the key to solving warfare in human behavior. And that is the precise reason I consider boxing an advanced art. At 18 and a sophmore in college, I was impelled to get in the ring for two reasons- I was on fire, and, I wanted to deconstruct the extension of the political theory of Niccolo Machiavelli. Fascinated by the omnipresent societal belief that 'might makes right'; I wanted to get to the nucleus of force, conquest, strength, and to define the true meaning of victory for myself. What I discovered as I trained and fought (as the only woman on the boxing team) was deeply illuminating. The greatest fighters never seek to destroy or obliterate their opponent, they do not decimate the other fighter, they do not hate him. The greatest fighters are actually those with the heart of a lion who do not look for the weakness of the other fighter, but instead they remove all fear and doubt in themselves; thereby inspiring their opponent to do the same. The fight then becomes a contest of greatness between two warriors. Obviously this is extremely rare in the sport of boxing, as it is generally a pugilistic bloodsport that represents the very worst in human nature. However, my passion for boxing as political theory and a metaphor for all of life was valiantly demonstrated in the rare fight such as the one between Arturo Gotti and Mickey Ward in their 3rd match, (when Gotti broke his hand and kept fighting anyway). To witness it was a thing of unparalleled beauty. It was the embodiment of true victory... for when victory is achieved in the individual first, it evolves the nature of the conflict itself.
The fact that the evolution of non-violence could be discovered in boxing embodies the same profound wisdom that can be found in the following words: The art of war IS the art of peace... for you must understand one in order to transform the other. This has been the extraordinary downfall of peace activists. They have lacked the courage to dive down into the other side in order to get the pearl and crack the code of what war really is. What hippie can you ever imagine lacing up gloves and popping in a mouthpiece? Exactly. And in equal measure, there is an unassailable bravery and commitment required by a soldier in order to understand how sacred life is, to respect it, and to not take it.
The overwhelming need of the 21st century is to understand that there does exist paradigms that define the intersected middle point between pacifism and vengeance. There is a known futility to destroying the enemy, only to watch it multiply and grow back ever more densely; just as there is a blindness to denying visceral threats and thinking a flower will calm someone out to kill you. Neither side is any form of a practical solution. Obviously, considering our history as a world, there has never been any kind of significant alternative to simply blowing each other up once we have ceased to be on talking terms- whether in nations or in marriages.
Until now.
Necessity is truly the mother and father of all invention. And the unspeakable urgency of the modern state of the human condition loudly calls for new solutions. This is why I joyously climbed into that ring to get hit and to crack jaws, to give it/take it, and bleed it; in the hopes it would someday yield everything you are now reading.... and it has.
Semper Fi.
Call Out: How many soldiers have to commit suicide after returning from war before we realize that training human beings to kill on the capricious whims of foreign policy decisions is resolutely unwise...?
Talk About It: What do you think about bringing home all of our military stationed everywhere around the world? And what do you think is the real reason we have troops in 135 countries (as reported by the D.O.D.)? What are your thoughts about our military and police expanding training utilizing non-lethal force?
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This is deep. I had to read it three times. But it is the absolute truth. I have lived in both worlds, civilian and military. I am at a loss for words... We are really at the point in our world where these types of questions have to be asked. We need new models. To be honest, I would have never dreamed that a woman could understand to the depth demonstrated here--but hats off. She certainly understands. Both sides. And you never see that anywhere. Everyone is always one side or the other. She shows what is very rare: what makes a true warrior- total bravery and reverence for life.
It took me a minute to work up to leaving a comment. I have so much more to say about this whole article... but I need to digest it. There is a great deal to think about from these words. (YES we should bring the troops home from foreign ports!) I would like the entire military and population of the United States of America to read this article. We sure need it.
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