Those Who Resist Revenge and Swallow Anger Are Winners

Life Taught Me : Most of the times, revenge is a loss, ignoring it is a profit

America naked, America exposed, America transparent and America severely polarized. It never crossed my mind I will live to see the day America's Executive and Legislative branches of government fighting each other with serious enmity, as if one is located in Siberia and the other is located in Chile ! Where American politics are heading, and what impact the Pelosi / Trump fiasco has on the way American citizens see government ? In principal, the division of American political governance into the three components is ideal and no one is above the law. But why does it reach a point where feud is spelled out viciously and publicly ?

I quote an impressive verse from the Quran which shows the value of non-revenge, and I am sure similar verses exists in the Bible and other holy Books. But let me first clarify what I mean. President trump didn't shake hands with Speaker Pelosi. Pelosi responded (revenge) by ripping up a copy of his speech. An action and reaction. However one can give Trump the benefit of doubts ( may be he didn't notice when she extended her hand) but what benefit of doubts one can give to Pelosi? None. In fact , to the contrary, Pelosi's extending a hand to Trump could be considered as an aggression ( you are so dumb that despite what I did to you I am extending a handshake and expect you to accept it ). The verse from the Quran says, and I am translating the exact meaning but not the exact wording : " Good deeds can't be equated with bad deeds. When you manage the person with whom you are enemies with good deeds he will become a very loyal ally of yours" .

It is beyond expectation and beyond imagination seeing the speaker of the US House of Representatives tearing apart a copy of the speech of the American President in front of the World, while the president still standing in front of her. To me what she did, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the Trial, is an insult to the American people, at least to the more-than-half that voted for Mr. Trump. Sometimes, may be most of the times, forgiving a single insult /aggression can work for the benefit of the victim. A clear recent example is Iran's attack on Saudi oil refineries which halted half of Saudi oil production and 5% of world oil production. Saudi held back and let the aggression takes its course, while doing a miracle when it pumped extra oil from reserve and in the same time worked around the clock to fix the damage which was fixed incredibly within 4-5 weeks despite the huge damage to the installation.

Saudi never fired a single bullet to Iran. Iran was shocked by Saudi restraint and the speed with which damage was fixed. Saudi would have never achieved such a shock to Iran if it responded with missiles and F15s. Saudi Arabia won the World's support and sympathy while Iran suffered more sanctions and condemnations, a result would never have been achieved had Saudi responded with immature or hasty revenge as Pelosi did. I think students in Political and Social sciences can learn a lot from these two real life incidents.

Hamad S Alomar