Apparently Justin Trudeau’s foolish comment that we must try to understand the “root cause of evil” as his answer to the horror of the Boston Marathon bombing has found a foothold with some Canadians, as evidenced by the sympathetic comments which followed from a number of media commentators, and which was echoed again by Jim Borisenko in his letter We Must Learn to Understand Evil (the News, May 3). He wrote, “when it comes to coping with evil, ignorance is our worst enemy.”
I disagree. Ignorance of evil, that is, failure to recognize evil, and to confront it as evil, is our worst enemy. That ignorance cost us dearly as the world passively watched the rise of Nazism. The well-meaning leaders of England and France decided to “cope with the threat” by reaching out to Hitler as a man who they considered honourable, just misunderstood, thinking that if they would only concede to a couple of his seemingly legitimate grievances, all would be well. That thinking resulted in the loss of tens of millions of lives including over 100,000 Canadians.
With specific reference to the Boston bombing, U.S. authorities had information from the Russians that the Tsarnev brothers might be dangerous. Unfortunately, they failed to recognize the evil mindset of the brothers thus resulting in three deaths and over 200 injuries, many of them very serious and life changing. If only the U.S. had had the aid of Justin Trudeau beforehand so they might have understood the root cause of the brothers’ grievance against the U.S.A. and made the appropriate amends.
Rather than trying to understand the root cause of the terrorist attack on their oil refinery, Algeria got it right when they sent in the troops to confront them. What Morocco understood, that Trudeau does not, is evil is a snake and the only way to deal with it is to cut off its head, and quickly. The fact is that Prime Minister Stephen Harper also has it right on this question. No amount of attempting to understand the root cause for the terrorist snake, nor attempts to placate it, will change its nature. Either it will be confronted and held in check, or it will bite and consume us.
Although attempts to understand problems and differences and to find solutions that work for everyone can lead to good results in less volatile situations and when we are dealing with people of good will, Justin Trudeau and those who subscribe to his thinking on this matter of terrorism are wrong. Moreover, Trudeau’s thinking is dangerous, not only to the security and well being of Canada, but also the world.
We sing, “Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee.” Let us also stand on guard against those who would “seek to understand the root causes of evil.” Our freedom and our very lives may depend upon it.
Rick Tone
Whitehorse