"Nobody listened to us when we spoke
So we used the noise of gunpowder as our rhythm"
-- Algerian national anthem, lyrics written 1955
So we used the noise of gunpowder as our rhythm"
-- Algerian national anthem, lyrics written 1955
Colonizers ignore every call of justice, every call of liberty, every scream of pain... until the oppressed take up arms. Then, they call them terrorists and launch a devastating total war "against terrorism" and in defense of "civilization".
And then you have the "civilized world" stand on the side of the colonizers, decry "terrorism", and double down on all forms of support for that "war on terrorism", until the country - liberated or not - ends up a traumatized wasteland for generations.
I believe in strategic nonviolence. But we must be clear that the violence of the oppressed can never be morally equated with the violence of the oppressor. It is the oppressor who creates the conditions under which it the oppressed start to consider picking up arms.
Violence is often a trap set up for us by the oppressors. They want us to be violent so they can kill us. Strategic nonviolence negates their advantage in doling out violence and turns it into a liability. But we cannot have a grand strategy until we have a grand vision first.
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