Deepak Chopra: we need more voices like his

Read this: (from a recent interview)

"We have a very self-righteous attitude towards the rest of the world. We have no understanding of how these violent ideologies are born. We want to just go to war and kill the terrorists. Well, the bad news is you can kill as many terrorists as you want, but you cannot kill terrorism. In order to kill terrorism it's gonna have to be a 50-year Marshall Plan to not build war torn cities, but to build ideas. To rebuild violence torn minds. To educate them, to help them, to cooperate with them, to create economic partnerships so that the rage disappears, and to understand them. There are very simple rules for having a dialogue. You respect your enemy. You talk to them with the attitude, 'Yes. We understand that you also have injustice and we also feel injustice. Can we have a room here for forgiveness on both sides? Can we refrain from belligerence?' The more belligerent we get, the more belligerent the radicals get."

That some might criticize such eloquent and unimpeachably well-reasoned speech is completely absurd to me, and betrays a reactionary extremism that will always thwart critical thought and dialog.

At a time when Bush II still is trying to link 9/11 to the war in Iraq, we need more voices like this. Thank god Obama has been elected.