My Current Opinion - by Guy Spiro

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." This quote is sometimes attributed to Winston Churchill and sometimes to FDR from the early days of World War II. I don't know who said it first but the knowledge it conveys is part of what is known as the perennial wisdom and it is more important today than it has ever been.

In this age of real-time global media, watching the news has become a spectator sport to eclipse any championship game. We sat glued to our TV sets as the images of the attack on the WTC were indelibly imprinted on the mass mind. Over and over the planes hit and the twin towers fell. My point is not that we should not be aware of what is happening in the world. My point is that we must make conscious choices as to how we respond. The world now watches as the U.S. military targets the Taliban and Al Qaeda. We watch as the anthrax attack on the U.S. runs its course. As the West watches its CNN and the Islamic world watches its Al-Jazeera, the fires of fear are fanned and the forces of our common enemy score points.

We must understand very clearly who this adversary is. In reality a small minority, it purports to represent Islam. It makes war upon the developed world and upon Islam itself. One can imagine the Prophet's reaction to it as being much the same as Jesus would have viewed the Inquisition. Osama bin Laden and his allies seek to unite the Islamic world under their leadership, to impose their perversion of Islam upon it and then to conquer the rest of the world. One needs only to look at life in Afghanistan under the Taliban to see what that world would look like ... an attempt to impose a return to medieval times. In their apocalyptic vision there is no room on Earth for the Western democracies or any other cultures. Our very existence is unacceptable and must be removed. They have started a war that rationality would understand that they cannot possibly win. The outcome of the all-out war that they are attempting to incite between the Islamic world and the developed world is a foregone conclusion. There is no doubt that the combined might of the U.S., Europe, Russia and China would prevail in a worst-case scenario. There can be no doubt that ultimately we will win this war. The question is, at what cost?

Winning this war and minimizing the damage to humanity and to our planet will take not only appropriate military action and economic assistance, it will take an awakening of consciousness. Fortunately we do have recent precedent and a model to follow. While the military and economic actions are necessary, we have to remember that the true battlefield is human consciousness. Mass consciousness creates and defines physical plane reality. The cold war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was not won because the U.S. was able to outspend the Soviets. It was not won because one system was better than the other. Both of those things may have been true, but the cold war was won because mass consciousness rose up and struck it down. This was accomplished by the global peace prayer and meditation events that were organized by various groups and individuals.

When a critical mass of peace, love and understanding is generated, magic happens. The dark cannot exist in the light. The threat of imminent nuclear annihilation that we all lived under for all the decades of the cold war was no match for the light of love. The powerful thought form generated by the millions of participants, on their own and during these global events, made what seemed to be reality simply fade away without a shot being fired. We now bring this to bear on a hot war and it will be no less effective. It is imperative that we join in on all of these actions as we become aware of them. As we in the developed world organize these events and link up with those in the Islamic world, we will succeed all the sooner.

Fear not, the war against the apocalyptic minority who are attempting to hijack Islam and bring humanity to ruin will be won. Just as we celebrated with Berliners as the wall came down, we will sit in front of our TVs and witness the end of this war and we will dance in the streets.

How soon, and after what degree of suffering, is in our hands.