Op-Ed

There Is No One to Blame but Ourselves

Brutality, assaults, attacks, power, aggression, terrorism, and murder are a few of the words that have become a regular part of our lives. The entire world has faced wars and conflicts between countries as far as we can remember. Yet, we have all been bombarded to make revenge but we all know that it just makes it worse. It is clear that our response to violence is violence, but it just becomes and endless back and forth. Since the September 11 incident, things have gone overboard especially now that Osama Bin Laden has been pronounced dead. I believe that the number one element preventing peace all over the world is the use of violence to solve problems.

We all know that President Bush started one of the biggest wars ever known because of what Osama Bin Laden’s organization did to our country. He destroyed all of the United States not only economically but also emotionally. When the Twin Towers were destroyed many innocent people were killed and family members were not even able to see their loved ones for the last time. President Bush decided to send a large number of troops from the United States to fight Osama Bin Laden. Due to this, there were more terrorist attacks occurring in the United States because it made our enemy even angrier knowing that we were attacking him. Poor Americans were sent daily to Iraq and had to leave their families behind to fight. Many of the civilians saw that war as a waste of time, money, and most importantly, lives.

Many people were hoping for the war to come to an end. As our newest elected President Obama was inaugurated, he promised that the Iraq War will come to an end and he has come closer to ending it. As soon as he became president, what Bush had promised us for many years was finally coming to pass. Many troops were sent home and they were once again united with their families. It was a relief for most of us to know that we were not at war anymore. Recently we all received “happy” news; finally Osama Bin Laden was killed.

But the relief that we had all felt disappeared in an instant.

As you all know, in this situation Al Qaeda in Afghanistan will soon find a way to take revenge. The war will once again continue due to this most recent incident that took place. The United States economy will get a lot worse than as it is now. The gas prices will rise even more and there will be intrusive security to prevent terrorist attacks. Once again there will be chaos in the lives of Americans, people will feel unsecure and scared waiting for the next attack.

If all of us would take an in-depth look into peace, we will all notice that peace is the only answer to our entire problem. There is no need for violence; instead, it destroys us even more. There are many steps that we could take after this incident to have a peaceful world. We could all reduce aggression by looking for peaceful solutions instead of violence.  We could also start little by little by making neighborhoods safe; we could show the little kids a healthy environment so that when they become adults they will change the world. The most important solution for this problem is after the 10^th year anniversary of September 11 we could all start from scratch working for peace.  How ironic that for most of us, the five letter word “peace” is just an imaginary perfect world that doesn’t exist. It may seem hard to bring peace back to our world, but when everyone contributes nothing is impossible.