GROUND ZERO, New York City, Apr. 10--Yesterday, at 10:49 a.m., Marine Cpl. Edward Chin hooked a chain around the neck of Saddam Hussein.    He took out an American flag his Lieutenant, a survivor of the Terrorist attack on the Pentagon on September 11, brought to Baghdad and wiped it over the face of Saddam Hussein.   Then, employing all the power and might of his Bravo Company U.S. Marine tank recovery unit, Chin watched the 40-foot statue of Saddam ripped from its roots to the cheers of thousands of Iraqis.

       The scene took place in Al-Firdaus (Paradise) Square in the center of Baghdad.   It was similar in symbolic effect to the crumbling of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the standoff with a Chinese student and a military tank in Tiananmen Square.
         It punctuated not only the fall of Baghdad but also a crippling blow to Beast of Terror.
         Saddam Hussein and his sons represented the Triad of Terror.   They were the incarnation of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency, the elements of Terrorism, the core of its chemistry.
         When the statue fell, it smashed, at least for the moment, two decades of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency that enslaved more than 24 million Iraqis in a shroud of repression of individual rights to freedom.

        Defeat, however, isn't sweet just because the statue fell.   Once down, the Iraqis dragged it through the streets.   Saddam's head, detached from the main body, was hooked by chains and dragged.   Photos of a boy beating Saddam's head with the soles of his shoes represented one youth's freedom from the Beast of Terror's shadow.
         But is the Beast dead?
         Did America and Britain rid the world of the Beast of Terror?   Or, did the war in Iraq only cut off one of its many heads--heads that regenerate quickly once the intoxication of liberation passes?
         While no one is quite sure what will happen next in Iraq or the Middle East, one thing is absolutely sure about the war--the Beast of Terror ran when faced with Vigilance.
          Bullies operate with the tools of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.  These are their key weapons of mass destruction.   By killing, raping, torturing and threatening a population and backing up such acts with a fierce army of loyal troops, such national Beasts of Terror suppress a society from revolting.   Fear drives people into shells, force them into caves of silence where they fall victim to the powers of Intimidation and the quagmire of Complacency.    They go along to stay alive.   They exist, hoping one day the Beast will die.
          It died yesterday in Iraq.
          At least, for the moment.
          In the vacuum where Fear ruled the Iraqi mindset, Courage sprouted.  Where Complacency once stifled confrontation, Iraqi Right Actions dominated.   And, where Intimidation kept the people from speaking out, Conviction drove them to beat the statue with their shoes, a symbol of their pent-up disgust.
          But, again, will the Beast die?

         Unfortunately, Saddam Hussein is not the only Beast.   He is part of a network of Beasts of Terror, of course, for his actions and those of his children, have been laced with a tyrannical evilness unmatched in modern time.   But killing Saddam and his sons does not guarantee a better world.  It means only that one more Beast of Terror has been eliminated.
          There are countless others just like him.
          The most obvious national Beasts of Terror are listed on the front pages of our newspapers and magazines.  They include North Korea, Syria, Iran.    Then there are others.  There are nations few have ever heard of, buried deep in jungles or hidden in obscure arid areas with no oil or natural resources that bring them to the surface of international awareness.
          The Beast of Terror exists in these nations not unlike it did in Iraq.
          If America were to tackle them all, we would be fighting wars of liberation ad infinitum. But, the Beast of Terror is not just limited to nations.
          The Beast also exists in America, Britain, Australia--in the lands where the liberators cam from.
          It exists in the anger of a father who beats his children, or in the wrath of a mother who tells her children in anger:  "I wish you were never born.  You're no good.  You're useless."

       The Beast takes shape and form in all degrees of Fear, in all levels of Intimidation, and in all recipes of Complacency.  
           While we revel in the joy of defeating "Terrorism" in Iraq, we need to be cautious.   We need to remember that Terrorism is not singularly limited to one person, one nation.
          It lives in the homes and minds of all people who treat their children with disrespect, in parents who make a child feel less than, or deprive a child of love and caring.
         There is little difference between the regime of Saddam Hussein and a household where a child is afraid of his or her parents' wrath--fearful he or she might say something that will cause the parent to lash out with the back of a hand or an icy attack on the child's self worth.
         A child who shrinks from his or her parents' raised Voice, or who swallows back the pain of its soul, fearful that exposing the inner pain will bring the anger of the parent to the surface, is not unlike a prisoner in one of Saddam's torture chambers, waiting for the sting of the whip, waiting for the next blow that will bruise the body or the soul.

        The Beast of Terror doesn't die just because we shoot it, or bomb it, or blow it up.   It exists in all our thoughts and actions, and is a primal ugliness that can only be contained when we are Vigilant.
         Only when we, the Citizens of Vigilance, realize the Beast of Terror exists within us as individuals, and that to rid the world of it we must attack it within ourselves with the same passion that America attacked Saddam Hussein, will our children and their Children's Children's Children be free of its threat.
         When we take the Pledge of Vigilance and vow to be constantly wary of how Fear affects our children and replace its venom with the concrete of Courage are we on the right path to pulling down the Beast of Terror's statue.   Only when we stop and think about the Intimidation we can impose on our children by ignoring their needs to be loved and considered as unique for who they are, will our Conviction to build their character overpower the shadows of Intimidation that try to stunt their growth.
       And, only when we stop doing nothing to evolve, will we drive the Complacency of our own self-defeat out and make room for the Right Actions necessary to insure our children's right to freedom from the Beast.  
       Complacency--the giving up of efforts to overpower the Beast--led Iraq into a state of Terrorism.   And that Terrorism was fragile.   It took little effort by the U.S. and Britain, a total of 21 days, to reverse a regime of tyranny that grew over the past 23 years.
       Bullies fall easily, for they have no foundation for their Terror other than Complacency.
       Each individual can defeat the Beast of Terror within themselves with minor effort, and free both themselves and their children from the Beast's shadows--free them from the Fear, Intimidation and Complacency that makes them cower and feel less than they could feel about life.

      If we think that Saddam Hussein lives--and lives within us--perhaps we will stop and think about how we act toward our children, and how we act toward ourselves.
       If we put the chain around the neck of the Beast of Terror inside us, and yank, we can topple it.  We can free ourselves from our own Fears, Intimidations and Complacencies.
       Then, and only then, can we free our children.
       You can pull down Beast of Terror today.
       Take the Pledge of Vigilance.  Watch Terrorism tremble and fall under the weight of Vigilance.
      

April 9--Ethics Of War