Lessons From The Playground

From the Associated Press: "BAGHDAD - U.S. troops killed the al-Qaida in Iraq mastermind of the bombing that destroyed the golden dome of a famed sacred Shiite shrine last year and set in motion an unrelenting cycle of sectarian bloodletting, the military said Sunday."
And now, at long last, the cycle of sectarian bloodletting can come to an end. If history has taught us anything, it is that one death will inevitably cause the two sides of a conflict to lay down their arms and realize the futility of murder. In the past twenty-eight hours, five people have been gunned down in the streets of my town. No one here is expecting an end to the unrelenting cycle of sectarian bloodletting to let up anytime soon. Such is the nature of violence. Such is the nature of a country who maintains a "defense department" for the purposes of blowing things up.
When I'm on yard duty at my elementary school, I will inevitably run into a couple of kids who decide not to resolve their conflict on the four-square court with our patented system of Roshambo. They would rather puff their chests out at one another and bump into each other until one of them takes the first swing. Their reasoning is always the same: "My mom told me that I should always hit back." While I make a point not to disparage the advice given to them by their parents, I point out that they are in a safe place where they are rewarded, even encouraged, to solve problems with their words and not their fists. Then I usually have to spend some time running through the series of events that would take place if everyone's mom told them to hit back. These kids live in Oakland, so it's not long before they get my allegory. They also live in a country where the President (and not just the Pinhead who is in there now) tells us to hit back. They cycle continues.
Do I believe that turning the other cheek will always work? Nope. Quite often it will end up getting your other cheek slapped. In the meantime, I suggest Roshambo.