A Conversation between Obama and Gandhi - Essay Example

College Dear Mahatma Gandhi, Ever since I assumed the presidency I have had a myriad of issues to deal with both domestically and internationally that have tested my values and abilities. To begin with I came into power on the back of a promise to give more hope to the average American and ensure they have as good a chance to achieve the American dream as do the elite in society. The American economy was on its knees and bankers were holding the country and the global economy at ransom due to their insatiable greed for profits and immoral bonuses. It was what we can refer to as a baptism of fire for a novice who barely had one month to learn the ropes of the job. The country’s military was also involved in various conflicts around the world that had been running for years with no definite end in sight. We had the Iraqi war as well as the war in Afghanistan which were by no means conventional confrontations. The war had taken a religious and ideological war that was claiming hundreds of lives on both sides due to the senseless violence that was prevailing and fueled by insurgents mainly the Taliban and Al-Qaida that were thriving due to the lawlessness and chaos that was evident. I had to find a solution that could effectively end the violence and stop any further loss of innocent lives. We have had the Palestinian issue that has been dragging on for decades due to varying view points between the Israelis and the PLO of Palestine. The violence experienced there is heart wrenching and no clear solution in sight. The various factions in Palestine and Israel are both sticking to their hard line stances on the negotiating table creating an unnecessary stalemate. The Palestinians do not recognize the state of Israel as well as Israel does not recognize their neighbor’s right to have an independent state. In short they both would be much happier if the other party is blasted to smithereens. Israel being our close ally, we have to solve the issue with their interests at the heart of our Middle East policy which makes us to appear partial on the negotiating table which only reduces the chances of achieving peace in the Middle East. I am facing another situation with the Islamic State of Iran. They are fast tracking their development of nuclear weapons .Several other countries in the globe possess such weapons namely Russia, China, France and the U.K. This is by no means a comprehensive list but this will do. What makes Iran’s nuclear project a worry to me as the president of the U.S is the fact that they have the agenda of wiping our close Ally Israel off the face of the earth. This is further compounded by the fact that the two nations are in really close proximity which means that they are within striking distance with each other. In the event of such happening it will pose grave danger to the whole world and might even be the trigger of the final world war. I am calling it the last world war since it will be fought with nuclear weapons which will most definitely wipe the whole population off the face of the earth. I also have a problem with North Korea which can only be described as an intelligence black hole. It is the most isolated country in the whole world with no outside communication and travel permitted to its ordinary citizens unless they have to represent the nation in the Olympic Games or any other international events like the FIFA world cup. This is by no means the greatest problem that we face in our dealing with the autocratic state. We are looking at a country with a million man army that has dreams and ambitions of developing nuclear weapons as well. They also have this bizarre ritual of shooting intercontinental missiles over their southern neighbor, South Korea, which is our key ally in Asia. The two people are actually the same with shared ancestry, language, food and even culture. They even have cross border relatives but are only permitted to visit each other on designated days of the year that the Pyongyang leadership has sanctioned. You must be asking yourself how this came about to be. The two Koreas fought a brief war during the cold war that has never really ended. There exists the world’s longest ceasefire along the demilitarized zone separating the two nations. The North’s leadership has is developing nuclear weapons that it aims to use against the United States as well as its allies in the Asian peninsula. We have problems in Africa stemming from poor governance and corruption amongst the continent’s leaders. There is civil strife in the Central African Republic, Southern Sudan, Somalia, Mali, and Libya est. There is also massive starvation in the continent due to recurring famine that has been brought about due to the wars that destroy crops and productive pieces of land that could otherwise be used to feed the population. Looking at all these issues, they all pose a serious threat to large populations of the world if left unattended to. I am a firm believer in diplomacy as a way of resolving misunderstandings across the globe. This might be the best option in an ideal world but ours is far from an ideal world. I have to deal with other leaders that have a completely different set of ideologies and would not hesitate to wage war that leads to the death of thousands of people in order to achieve their goals. My opinion is that collateral loss of life is inevitable whilst in the quest to secure the lives and livelihoods of millions of other lives from the savage hands of selfish and blood thirsty leaders that are present in the world today. Yours, Barrack Obama. Dear Obama, As I read your letter, I got the impression of someone who has put it upon himself to try and spread his ideology of fairness and equality to all. You believe that every human has the right to live a life of dignity that can only be achieved through sensible and caring leadership. You truly underwent a baptism of fire but if one examines this much more closely, you did not encounter all this unexpectedly. These must have been core subjects whilst on the campaign trail that you managed to convince the majority of the citizens on your ability to resolve amicably and make them feel safely. I do not condone any form of violence and loss of human life since I view every single human life as sacred that must be protected and guarded from any form of destruction that is not natural. I managed to wage a freedom movement that liberated India which is a very large country on the back of a non-violent campaign. You cannot claim to be giving hope to people when a section of the society feels aggrieved by your actions whilst spreading ‘hope’. Violence has been waged from since time immemorial and the only conclusion we can derive from this form of problem ‘solving’ is that it is a very clumsy method that always created significantly more problems than it intended to solve in the first place. During my struggles I had many critics who viewed my preferred method of freedom fighting as ineffective when compared to other dorms of struggles the world over most notably the French revolution, Russian revolution or the Irish and Italian nationalist struggles. The age old saying that violence begets violence should always be your guide in whatever you do as you struggle to make sure these populations under siege and dictatorial regimes finally have a taste of how it feels to live a dignified life. I reject the use of violence in trying to resolve the various crises in the world not because I consider it an easy way out of these situations but because it is a very crude and an ineffective means of conflict resolution not to mention the invaluable cost to human lives in the process. My subtle and passive methods are often misunderstood but they are the most humane methods to conflict resolution with no threat of escalating the same conflict that one seeks to resolve in the first place. Resistance that is nonviolent in nature requires one to have great courage to fight injustice without rancor, to bring together firmness with gentleness but without bloodshed. Once your nation with all the civilization and military resources opt to go about waging wars in foreign nations, there is bound to be civilian deaths in the process which you refer to rather callously as collateral damage. This will suck you to the same level as those dictators whom you aim to dispose and liberate their people. You will eventually lose the moral standing and authority in the eyes of the oppressed populations who were counting on your wisdom and power to liberate them. This will extinguish any glimmer of hope that had remained in their hearts which will be the worst place to condemn these populations to. Yours, Mahatma Gandhi. Conclusion Even though Gandhi has a noble approach to conflict resolution, it is not the best means through which world conflicts can be resolved. There are many different oppressors and war mongers that can only be tamed through the threat of brute force in order to drive some sanity into their mode of thinking. President Barrack Obama’s approach is much more realistic in trying to tackle violence in the present world. Work Cited Rai, Ajay S. Gandhian Satyagraha: An Analytical and Critical Approach. New Delhi: Concept, 2000. Print. Ranga, Reddy A. Gandhi and Globalisation. New Delhi, India: Mittal Publications, 2009. Print. Read More