A Time to Fight and Kill

“With someone like ISIS or the Burma military, you might have to shoot them to stop them. You're doing it not because it's good to do, but because there's no more loving way to do it. That's what they're asking for, and they are going to keep destroying people until they're stopped. So I believe there's a time to fight and kill.”

I know that the above quote from Dave Eubank of the Free Burma Rangers will be controversial to many people, especially those strongly advocating a strict non-violent response on the part of the democracy movement in Burma. So I don't include this quotation as an affirmation that Dave's view is the only correct assessment of the situation, but rather as an inquiry, admittedly a provocative one, which openly asks us to reflect on what we would do if we found our own community suddenly afflicted by such evil.

The Tatmadaw has inflicted generations of trauma onto the Burmese people, at a depth that is exceedingly difficult for most foreigners to understand. It is almost impossible to find a single Burmese family who, at some point in their life or the lives of those close to them, has not been severely impacted by the destructive nature of the military.

This has of course reached a fever pitch in the last year, when the extent of the horror, terror, torture, and death is on stage for all to see. An open, and genuine, question for all those adamantly opposed to Dave's quote: What nonviolent action is left for the resistance to try, that they have not already attempted? From peaceful protest to civil disobedience to pleading for help from international actors to media to healthcare, what options are left for them which have not yet been attempted?

And, if there is in fact no viable path left on the table that can prevent another generation or two from the inevitable trauma and depravation that we all know is coming, what then? Does one advocate a passive acceptance that fate (or karma, or God, or the universe) has determined that this suffering is simply to be weathered and taken in?

These are hard questions, and I also don't have the answer for them. But I hope that like me, you can reflect genuinely on Dave's controversial statement, doing so not from your own place of safety and privilege, but rather contemplating how you would be viewing the issue were you in war-torn Burma now, and what is more, if the trauma extended generations past as well.