Guru casts an illusion

By Amy Poszywak

Published: December 2, 2008

Removed from the broken houses of Fallujah and other realities, Deepak Chopra, the New Age healer, has transported himself back into public view, the aroma of his faux wisdom puncturing and fouling the electronic air. The attacks on Mumbai, which some have mistaken to be the product of radical Islamism, represent instead the overflow of broiling wrath shaken and vigorously stirred by that global conduit of bad vibes known as America. “Inflammation,” Chopra warns sagely, “will create more inflammation.”

What is needed, he says, is the ointment of soft speech and an extension of hands absent big sticks. “What role do we have in this,” the great guru asked CNN’s Larry King, referring to, naturally, the United States. Later, he dispensed with advice culled from his experience combating terrorism by penning tomes on the power to heal by way of pleasant thoughts. “Get rid of the phrase ‘war on terrorism,’ ” which is so unpleasant. “Ask for a creative solution in which we all participate.”

Oh.

This, in the mind of Chopra, would entail the formulation of what he calls a “Marshall Plan that looks at the deeper causes of global instability, poverty, radicalism, lack of education.” Well, there you have it. Virulent hatred of all things West is not what drives terrorists like those who attacked Mumbai, killing almost 200 people, including Alan Scherr and his teenage daughter, Naomi, both of Nelson County. Living in caves with nothing to read but dusty airplane manuals would drive anyone to the brink, right?

Of course, one of those cave dwellers happens to be Osama bin Laden, educated in economics and business administration at King Abdulazis University and the controller of a fortune estimated at $300 million. But never mind.

Drivel from the lips of Chopra, like gray skies and bitter cold in December, is to be expected. But what his words evince, a waning sense of comprehension about the nature of terrorism, should disturb those who cherish liberty and recognize the significance of the fight in which America now is engaged. For a vivid picture, try reading “House to House,” the brilliant war memoir authored by former Army staff sergeant David Bellavia, a veteran of the Battle of Fallujah.

While confronting a half-dozen insurgents, Bellavia writes, he was struck by the ideological clash at the heart of the conflict: “They have their God. I have mine.”

Few trends are as sure and popular as that of blaming America for the world’s ills. That thinking extends and prevails in the region occupied by India, where antiterrorism measures are a comedy and Muslim moderates are not safe from the zombie jihadists who claim the same God, though the Allah worshiped by the latter bears little resemblance to anything divine.

What those who cling with clutched fists and absent minds to the mantra of Chopra and his ilk miss at their peril is that terrorists like those who stormed Mumbai disdain all human life, even their own. Had he been seated in the hotel where terrorists gunned down Alan Scherr and his daughter, Chopra, a native of New Dehli and now himself a wealthy Westerner, would have sufficed as a victim just the same as anyone else. The role of the Marshall Plan in the rebuilding of Europe was in most parts myth. The energy of the people drove that resurgence. The plan Chopra suggests, in whatever hollow form it might take, would prove a tool in terrorists’ hands, not an aid in quelling jihad.

Chopra is right in his criticism of the phrase “war on terror,” for this is not specific enough. Reasonable people of all faiths and none have declared enemies: radical Islamists. They cannot and will not be appeased. They must be defeated, with big sticks and granite will.