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By Vivian Greentree

There was an article in Newsweek last week about the more than 1,200 U.S. children who have lost a parent in Iraq or Afghanistan. They are falling through the cracks of the Pentagon’s casualty assistance programs. Some have been shuffled around from department to department for over five months after their parent’s deaths, others not receiving any counseling at all. For each ultimate sacrifice a soldier makes, there are innumerable ripples in the fabric of their families’ and friends’ lives.

After reading the piece, feeling the ache of loss for each of those children who will grow up without their mom or dad, I also thought of the thousands of Iraqi and Afghani children who are facing the same fate.

Is that traitorous? Does it make me less of a patriot to think of the pain we are inflicting on the Iraqi people in the name of freedom and democracy – to empathize with the enemy? While I know a whole passel of ya’ll will say yes, I know at least one person who would say no.

Dr. Wayne Dyer, a motivational speaker and self-empowerment guru who tends to integrate progressive spiritual beliefs into his inspirational lectures, believes if we can’t learn to empathize with our enemy, we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes we have already made and continue this downward spiral of war in Iraq, then perhaps Iran, then perhaps Syria, North Korea - take your pick. Mistakes like we made in Vietnam when we failed to understand and empathize with our (then) “enemy” who our leaders told us we were trying to shield from Communist rule. Errol Morris’ Fog of War shows us that 30 years later, we still have not convinced Vietnamese leaders that we were there to “protect” them and not enslave them. In current day Iraq, we are continuing to make the same mistakes when we fail to communicate with the Iraqi population and don’t see them as a nation, with its own destiny, irrespective of ours. How can they see us as liberators when we destroy their villages, their family members…justifying it in the name of those two elusive words…freedom and democracy?

The Administration says the average Middle Easterner hates us because we represent freedom and democracy. But, Dr. Dyer says, and a growing number of people are starting to understand, they hate us because we fail to represent freedom and democracy. What we represent is American financial interests. But that isn’t as moral sounding, is it? If we are so determined to be the moral beacon others look to for freedom and democracy, why don’t we take care of our own underprivileged and homeless? Why do we constantly take from the poor to give to the rich by cutting social programs funding? And why do we do business with, as Dr. Dyer mentions, The Emir of Kuwait, the Saudi royal family, and others of that ilk? I would say given our history of propping up corrupt governments when it suits us, the bell of liberty must sound more than a little hollow to the average Middle Easterner.

For those of you that are starting to steam at the ears with the utter temerity of me questioning American motives, I will ask you what Dr. Dyer often asks throughout his lecturing: how much time have you spent praying for your enemy today? Since this Administration waged this war under the auspice of Christian principles (remember the “Axis of Evil” speeches?) it is only apt that we live up to the Christian standards we would impose on others. We should show empathy and compassion, and try to understand that the people we label as terrorists probably call us the same. And what does this cycle of hatred and failure to communicate produce? More wars. More deaths. More parentless children. When will our leaders realize the only real solution is to cultivate the love of God in both our hearts and our course of action?