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Gandhi said that the temporary good that violence appears to bring is easily outweighed by the enduring and often irreparable evil that it leaves behind.

An insightful essay written in 2005 by William Rivers Pitt of Truthout.org helps to illustrate Gandhi's observation. Pitt sketches the history of the American economy from World War II, through the Cold War era, and into the Iraqi conflict of the early 21st century; then he demonstrates chillingly the dependence on the wartime economy that has developed in America:3

"We need wars. Without wars, the economy flakes and falls apart. Without wars, the trillions of dollars spent on weapons systems, military preparedness and a planetary army would dry up, dealing a death blow to the economy as currently constituted. Without wars or the threat of wars, the populace is not so easily controlled and manipulated."

Then Pitt identifies exactly who benefits from this dependence on the perpetual wartime economy:

"Let us be clear, however. When I say "we," I do not refer to your average working man and woman on the street. The man running the shoe store or the woman managing the bar does not need war to remain economically viable. The "we" I speak of is that overwhelmingly wealthy and powerful few who have wired their fortunes into the manufacture of weapons, the plumbing of oil, and the collection of spoils through political largesse."

Thus, Gandhi, like Martin Luther King, Jr., consciously chose nonviolence as his way of life, because he knew the dangers of its alternatives. It is said that at the very moment of his death, he had time to look at his assassin and bow to the Atman-the true selfin him, before the man pulled the trigger and killed Gandhi.

What did a man like Gandhi possess that Osama bin Laden or George W. Bush are lacking, that they would prefer to kill and maim the innocent children, women, and men of another nation-tens of thousands of them-rather than spend a moment in trying to understand them, even (or especially) those who would fly commercial jets into skyscrapers or drop bombs into the homes and shops of Baghdad?

What did Gandhi possess that we or the most powerful leaders of the world lack? Not a blessed thing. Nature has given you the same gifts of insight and deep discernment that it gave to Gandhi.

But he had discarded something that we may still, to a greater or lesser extent, carry within usthe belief in the use of power to solve problems and overcome conflict. The difference is in the individual choices

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