Here is a quote that illustrates how even the best-intentioned progressives are still stuck on a treadmill that leads where all treadmills lead - to a perpetuation of the status quo. Rather than giving the source, since opposition is not the intent here, and since it reflects so well the feelings of many besides the source, suffice it to say that the context is the outrage currently being experienced by people of conscience regarding the massacre at Haditha.

U.S. soldiers shot these innocent people. But ultimately, it was U.S. policy that killed them. We need to be sure that all of those responsible for these deaths are held accountable - not just the individual Marines who snapped and committed terrible atrocities, but every politician from Congress to the White House who has supported this indefensible war.

The war in Iraq is over. After Saddam was toppled, Iraq entered an intermediate phase of post-war occupation. In theory, that phase, too, is over with the inauguration of a new government; the next phase is called reconstruction. That no distinction is made between these phases is what is ultimately the cause of this massacre and countless other civilian deaths and other atrocities in Iraq, around the world, and throughout the recent history of our species.

Marines - the few, the proud. Soldiers - lean, mean fighting machines. Politicians - governing representatives of a consitituency. Snapped? Does that mean the men and women who were trained as professional killers were so weak that they showed their humanity, their failure to act like machines? Who designed those faulty switches by which their mode of operation is supposed to be changed from killing machines into peacekeeping forces (an oxymoron in itself!) and then into peacebuilding humanitarians? Was it US policy as represented by the State Department and the White House, military training as designed and implemented by the Defense Department by means of the Pentagon and the Academies, or the practice of warfare as specified by international treaties, accords, and conventions?

The answer is all of the above. But since neither a policy nor a training nor a practice can be "held accountable," they remain untouched, unchanged, innocent, almost sacrosanct - sacred institutions behind which their self-righteous proponents can hide when their practices are challenged - while a whole lot of people are punished for doing too well the job for which they were trained so that a whole lot more people can have a way to dispel their guilt and shame and frustration about "what this world is coming to."

A little imagination will show that the answer is also none of the above. The simple fact that is ignored by the diplomats and the military and even the international community itself is that people are not machines. The policy-makers, the military, and the diplomats have been directing their attention at actions instead of people. To expect the same heart, mind, and spirit to act like a killer today, a peacekeeper tomorrow, and a peacebuilder the next day is to deny the basic integrity of the deployed men and women. If a civilian displayed such "flexibility," (s)he would be institutionalized for psychologically dysfunctional behavior if not incarcerated as a sociopath.

So the root cause of such atrocities is this mixed message we are sending our troops - not to mention our adversaries. Peace cannot be waged by troops trained for combat. And infrastructure, environment, and culture cannot be restored by police trained to keep order. "But that's the way it's always been done. We just have to be more conscientious about it." And that's why our history is the story of a sequence of more and more conscientious wars and atrocities. And the more conscientious we are, the more we deny our humanity as we become more and more successful at making people emulate machines. We are all accountable because we have not developed our cultural practices with the same zeal as we've developed our technology.

The answer is not regression of technology but rather acceleration of cultural evolution. A good start would be the passage of HR3760/S1756, the legislation to create a US Department of Peace. A primary mandate of this Department would be the deployment of "troops" trained to build peace during postwar reconstruction. Then let's look to the Department of Homeland Security and make it a Department of Human Security with a primary mandate to deploy its "troops" for police action - peacekeeping in lawless places, whether the inner city ghetto, a newly industrialized nation undergoing a period of upheaval, or Iraq between regimes. Finally, let's look at the mandate of the Department of Defense and see if we can restore its function as our last-resort protection against aggression. And by the way, it's the State Department that has failed in its mandate to prevent war through diplomacy and is clearly obsolete. Its mandate would be better addressed by the Undersecretary of International Affairs within the Department of Peace. And let's make these reforms totally transparent to the international community through vigorous participation and leadership in global organizations such as the UN and initiatives such as the World Social Forum.

It's really not that difficult. The pieces are all in place. All we have to do is have the collective will to connect the dots. This requires responsibility, not accountability. Let's start responding instead of reacting. Responsible people respond. People who react - who hold others accountable and then think they've done their job - are condemned to re-enact. And that's why I don't "demand accountability," why I don't want to "see justice served," why I'm not too interested in the "rule of law" as we understand it today, why I don't jump on the impeachment bandwagon. Ghandi said, "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind." Let's quit wasting our time and resources on accountability and protect, nurture, develop, and grow our vision - like visionaries.