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The night sparkled with fluorescent red, blue and yellow lights while crowds of people gathered in the square. As people mingled, conversations blurred with one another.
The cool breeze brushed each one of us softly, and I, at 12-years-old, felt right at home – my home for the holiday – St. Takla Convent, Maaloula, Syria.
I was born in the United States like most students in my junior class, but, at the age of 12, I wasn’t visiting Syria, I lived in Syria. In fact, I had lived in the Middle East for eight years.
Unfortunately, the countless memories that have been cemented into my consciousness provide the starkest contrast with the images the media portray of a war-ravaged country.
My blissful memories of people, who for 60 years never feared crowding at two in the morning unprotected, today seem more of a distant dream than memories of the past.
The peaceful village of Maaloula and the Convent itself were just attacked on Sep. 3 by none other than the freedom fighters who apparently found nuns and orphans threatening to their “honorable” ideology. These militia groups have consistently and passionately boasted to be divisions of Al-Qaeda.
It follows that to strike Syria is to support Al-Qaeda, their beliefs and their practices. Our Congress now debates whether we fight as practical allies of Al-Qaeda, or help defeat them.
Some Syrians, and most western nations, consider the Syrian government a ruthless dictatorship, advocating bombing the country. Others including Russia, China and Middle Eastern countries support the Syrian president, Al Assad, while firmly opposing any military action.
What both sides fail to recognize is that they have a greater, common enemy – violence through extremism.
Two years after my visit to Maaloula, at the age of 14, I walked 12.5 miles through five villages in Eastern Syria with some 50 young men and women. It was the middle of the night, and the road was rocky and covered with white dust. Guided only by moonlight we sang and talked while soaking up the clean air. We were stopped once by government intelligence personnel who inquired about our activities and bid us good night.
Nowhere on that trip did a black van equipped with militiamen kidnap us. On that August night, we were safe. Since that August night, no one has dared to take that trip.
For the past 60 years, Syrians have had their fair share of political problems and corruption, but Syrians were strangers to the violence that has infested the country for the past two.
Again, this is where our President, with guidance from the Congress, has to recognize that we cannot and should not remedy violence with more violence, especially with Al-Qaeda prospering and innocent people caught in the crosshairs.
The only viable solution is diplomacy.
Ten years ago, former President Bush bypassed Congress when he invaded Iraq, and so did JFK with Vietnam 42 years earlier. President Obama’s decision to seek Congress for support gives rationality and constructive communication a chance to succeed. We either act like Al-Qaeda, relying on violence for change, or we act like the United States, relying on common sense and good judgment.
…
The morning after the holiday in St. Takla, I walked down the old monastery stairs to a cave underground as old as time which the nuns had recently discovered and converted into a private dining room. The room was filled with a chill from ceiling and walls that were actually cold stones that protruded from the mountain. I sipped hot tea that drove into me a sense of calm and warmth.
As a result of violence and extremism, the cave returned to its unfortunate historic function – a haven for nuns and orphans huddling to survive.