GROUND ZERO, New York City, Jan. 19--The war in Iraq boils down to two options--suicide or exile.   It seems suicide has the upper hand.
        Breaking news reports today are filled with headlines about how the Saudi government has offered Saddam Hussein and his family amnesty if they agree to leave the country to avoid war.   The proposal offers  Hussein, who has commanded the country for more than 23 years, exile in perpetuity--an agreement that extends beyond current Saudi leadership to the next rulers, protecting Hussein's children's children's children from harm.

     However, most Iraqi observers believe Hussein will never voluntarily leave Iraq.  Instead, they predict, he will commit what is called "national suicide," fighting until his last breath regardless of the waste to his life, his family, and a mass number of Iraqi civilians who will be caught in the crossfire should the U.S. go to war to unseat him.
        Both Crown Prince Abdullah and the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, made public statements in recent weeks that Arab states should be given an opportunity to provide an exit strategy for Hussein if Iraq is judged by the Security Council to have failed to comply with Resolution 1441, which demands a full accounting of its secret weapons programs.
       "I don't think Saddam will leave his country," a senior Saudi diplomat said, "and the history of efforts to remove him is not a history that has revealed success."
       Amnesty has also been offered to senior Iraqi officers who help oust the Iraqi leader.  Little hope is held that this will happen.
       Then, there is the ultimate solution, national suicide that comes in the wrappings of war.  It is at this point that the two forces--Iraq and the United States, plus any allies, become equal Beasts of Terror, each eager to die for their causes.    For Saddam, it means suicide.  For the U.S., it means becoming the Beast again.

       Equal pressure to launch war is being put on Saddam Hussein, and President George Bush in America.  In America, that pressure was exerted yesterday when thousands of anti-war protestors marched on Washington, as well as in other major cities across the country.
       The "No War For Oil" theme struck at the primary strategy of the U.S. as seen by anti-war protestors, that the U.S. is poised for war from a myopic strategy based on controlling the rich oil fields in Iraq.   Synchronizing with Martin Luther King Day being celebrated this weekend, marchers made their way through Washington's Capitol, including a San Francisco Stroller Brigade of parents pushing their children up Market Street and through crowds.   In Tampa, Florida, protestors rallied outside Mac Dill Air Force Base as military jets took off nearby.  Globally, coordinated anti-war protests were held in Tokyo, Paris, Cairo and Moscow.
       It is obvious the pressure is mounting on both sides.  On the one side, the Beast of Terror in Iraq is being pushed into a corner--surrender of die is the option being given.    On the other side of the fence, America is being pushed to launch war.   The louder the protestations ring, the more pressure is put on President Bush to launch the war to quell the protests.  He cannot afford to back down to public pressure, for if he did, he would signal to the people they have more power than the President, and even in a democracy such as ours, that would violate Executive Privilege.  It would emasculate a President's "right to rule" despite the people.
        Unfortunately, power is vested in leadership without restraint in America.   Like Saddam, the only way to stop the war machine from launching is to oust Bush, and that is not possible at this point.   America has positioned itself as the "World's Terrorist Savior," and little if anything can stop the gravity of war except Saddam's capitulation, his assassination, or a coup that would force him into exile.

       One of Terrorism's chief components is Complacency.  The two others are Fear and Intimidation.   It seems that America is currently head-locked in the Complacency hold.    As a result of Fear and Intimidation, Americans rushed to support the attack on Iraq under the thesis that if we cut off Saddam's head, we would show the world we would go after any leader who planned to Terrorize the world.
        As the momentum grew, the power of the government to launch war expanded.  Now, all the army ants have been sent to surround the Iraqi Terrorist Nest.  They are snapping their jaws, thirsty to taste blood.   Tens of thousands of American airmen, Marines, army and navy personnel are poised to use spears and swords to wash clean those who defy the U.N. and pose a future threat to world security.
        Even if Saddam seeks exile or is ousted, American troops will probably swarm into Baghdad to insure the next regime conforms to the dictates spelled out by the U.N., and also to occupy the country as a symbol of American influence in the Middle East.   
        And, of course, there is the oil rights issue.   Who will get what?   Whether the war is won with much bloodshed or little, the prize will go to those who dominate the next regime's ear, or, lace their pockets.   Our relationship with Saudi Arabia is one of symbiosis--while our two cultures may not agree on how to run a country--we do agree on the flow of commerce.
        American Complacency, however, is the real issue.    At this point, even ten thousand Stroller Brigades would have little impact on Washington policy.   Our own Beast of Terror has grown to match and surpass that of the Saddam Hussein's, for in war, it isn't the "good" versus the "bad" that fights, but it is one Beast of Terror versus the other Beast of Terror that battles it out.

         As a warrior I understand the change that occurs in the average, peace-loving human who holds a weapon in his hand and fixes the bayonet to the rifle muzzle.   Something changes.   Inside the soft, pliable soul of the citizen who wears a uniform, the child of innocence dies when the first bullet is fired.   Whatever pathos/ethos combination existed in the chemistry is frozen.   A cold indifference takes control of the system.  Killing becomes the singular goal, without thought, without remorse, without guilt or shame.    One becomes a Beast of Terror, willing to sink his bayonet into another's chest and twist and shove until the other human being's guts pop out.   And then on to the next, and the next and the next until the pools of blood no longer look red, but become a noxious slime one has to wipe from his eyes so he can see the next person he has to kill.
         Complacency removes options.   It freezes one's morality, suspends it, anaesthetizes it.
         That's the danger of war.
         Once it begins, morality ends.
         Rights and wrongs cease to exist.  Killing for killing's sake rules, for the primary purpose of war is to destroy the enemy.  There are no other options.
         It is not unlike a mother being attacked by thieves and robbers who seek to slay her children.   Give her a knife and she will slice every throat without a blink of any who come within her knife's range, and she will shed no tears in the process.

          Her Beast of Terror will match and often exceed the Beast of Terror she is fighting, for Nature must protect itself from Beasts by installing into those under attack the same primal lust for killing as the killers have.  Otherwise, everything is unfair.
         The issue at the present is America's Beast of Terror has matured.   While we may have started out in our war planning by taking the "high moral ground" of "world protector," we now have morphed into a Beast of Terror, equal to or greater than the Beast of Terror we call Saddam Hussein--a man capable of killing tens of thousands of his own people, the Kurds.  A man who will sacrifice the lives of thousands of innocent civilians in his last-ditch stand to remain "King" of his Iraqi kingdom.
         Hitler took the same attitude.  As the German Army was defeated, Hitler demanded that every soldier and general fight to the death rather than give up.  Surrender was not in his vocabulary.   In the final moment, he killed himself rather than admit defeat.
         To drive him to such a decision, Allied Forces virtually destroyed Germany--fire bombing Dresden and other civilian targets, unleashing the Beast of Terror in full form so that our Beast was bigger and uglier than Hitler's.
         So it will be the same scenario in Iraq if Saddam Hussein and his troops make a pact to fight to the death.  Beast will battle Beast, not good versus bad, right versus wrong, East versus West.  It will just be Beast vs. Beast.

         As the blood flows, America and the rest of the world  will stand Complacent.   It will be too late to stop the Beast or Beasts once the dogs of war start fighting.   Only death will answer the call of the wild.  Once the taste of blood has been sampled, the only way it can be sated is to hold up the beating heart of the victim for all to see.   Only then will the last bullet be fired, the last bayonet be thrust.  At least, for the moment.

        Complacency rises to the surface when Fear and Intimidation no longer have a course to run.   We have tried to drive Saddam to the wall with Fear and Intimidation, and now resignation sweeps our nation.   We have spent our efforts.  We have given power to our own Beast.
         Had we started off with a strategy of Vigilance rather than one of Vigilantee-ism, we might have another situation to consider.   Revenge was our goal in the beginning.  Obliteration is our goal today.
         If we had sought a Vigilant Solution in the beginning, we would not have Stroller Brigades marching across America as we are on the Eve of War.
         The Stroller Brigades would have started on September 12, 2001.   We would have marched across America and the World when our Sentinels of Vigilance were born at Ground Zero.  We would have screamed for their help to protect the Children's Children's Children from the Beast of Terror, and engaged the motherhood and fatherhood of all Parents of Vigilance globally.
         Had we all been subscribers to the Pledge of Vigilance on the Second Tuesday of September 2001, we would not wait until the 12th Hour to show our concern for our children, or their children, or the concern for Iraqi children, or any child in any land suffering under the thumbscrew of Terrorism.
        Complacency held us back.  It settled into our marrow, it held us back because we didn't have a balance for Fear which is Courage, or a balance for Intimidation which is Conviction, or a balance for Complacency which is Right Actions in behalf of the Children's Children's Children.

     Had we practiced the Principles of Vigilance prior to Nine Eleven, our families would have taken the March to Vigilance then.   It would be the Parents, Citizens, Loved Ones of Vigilance who stormed the streets in protest against the Beast of Terror in Iraq.   We would not be protesting war, we would be protesting the Beast of Terror.  We would call a spade a spade, and not hide behind labels or causes.
        Our goal would have been not to force Saddam out of office by a military coup, but to engage the Parents of Vigilance in Iraq to hoist their children's future to the world, and to cry out for help.
        The world would have rushed to the aid of Iraq.
        All the mothers and fathers would be engaged in the battle to free the children and the Children's Children's Children from harm.
        If Iraq is a lesson, it is one of being prepared for the next Beast of Terror.
        To be prepared, we must all subscribe to the Pledge of Vigilance.
        We must realize our worst enemy is not Fear or Intimidation, for they are just roads to the most cruel of all enemies--Complacency.    When we do not act promptly as Citizens of Vigilance then our governments act for us.   Once they start to act, they become the worst they can be--killers, not leaders.  And we feed them that right by not acting.  We turn ourselves through them into Beasts of Terror.
        Let us learn to not wait.
        Let us learn to not be Complacent.
        Let us Pledge Vigilance so that our Beast may remain under leash.

Jan. 18 -- The Beast Of Cancer's Terrorism