Via Simon, Politics With Richard:

Do we Hate our Enemy or Love our Enemy? Do we have the courage to love the terrorists?

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.... The chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

-Martin Luther King, 1963

This has become one of my favourite quotes of all time. Dr. King summarized my theory on violence, war, and destruction. " Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate." That is a powerful, powerful sentiment which carries through to this day.

We live in a culture which promotes the attitude that we must "get them over there, so that they don't get us over here." This is rhetoric which sits well with many Americans because it plays to their fears. The unknown is a frightening place; we all know that. We are inherently suspicious of those who we do not know; we are inherently angry to those who have done us harm. In this sense, there is no place for listening; there is no place for dialogue; there is no place for understanding. Men who despise each other cannot be friends or live in harmony so long as they despise each other. Peace can never be reached so long as we promote a culture of retaliation, revenge, and fear.

that sounds just about right.