To many in the White House, evil is seen as the source of the violent aggressions against us, but you can be certain they don't think of themselves as evil for the harm their policies cause others. All sides - maybe even, I suppose, the originator of Bush's 'mandate' to conquer, bin Laden - fancy themselves on the defensive. It alleviates blame, it soothes guilt, it absolves responsibility, if only in the mind of the aggressor.
Yet, I think that if there is an evil, it must exist outside of us all, manipulating our own fear, clouding our judgment with hate and recrimination at the perceived source of our losses, driving us to more violence like some miasmic parasite, consuming us as it feeds off of our collective acrimony. We must find a way to step back and let just, peaceful actions distinguish us from those who would attack us. That effort has to begin with the ones among us who have chosen to project their fears in the most destructive way imaginable: the Bush administration and their blustering, reflexive militarism.
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