Two weeks ago I heard Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak at CSU about “interdependence and complimentality,” which could not come at a better time. The war in Iraq is transitioning to the establishment of an interim administration, and Syria is being targeted by the Bush administration because of its chemical weapons program and porous border with Iraq.

Now, more than ever, one needs to understand that everyone is connected.

Tutu said, “Even the best and most splendid cannot live in isolation.” The Bush administration, since the beginning of the build up to the war in Iraq, and even beforehand, has been isolating our country from the rest of the world. It takes hard-line stances that many of our “ally” countries have questioned, and it has ignored the ruling of the Security Council of the United Nations concerning the invasion of Iraq.

Now the campaign in Iraq seems to be in its final stages, yet Saddam is nowhere to be found.

Now Afghanistan is without the rule of the Taliban, yet Al Qaeda is scattered and Osama bin Laden is nowhere to be found.

While the search for these men and organizations continues, let me echo Desmond Tutu when he said, “You cannot fight international terrorism on your own.”

But in order for the United States to fight international “terrorism” multilaterally, it must be willing not only to listen to other countries, but to work with them to make this world safer for all of us.

Tutu’s message of “interdependence and complimentality” needs to be taken to heart by all who hear it. With the future of the “war on terror” uncertain (but pointing toward Syria) and both Saddam and Osama bin Laden nowhere to be found, what happens next?

Where does the Bush administration draw the line in this ill-defined “war on terror”?

In this world, everything is contingent on everything else, and like it or not, one cannot be isolated in this day and age; everyone is interdependent on everyone else.

What will the world’s reaction be to what has taken place in Iraq, and what will the future hold for the United States and the world it continues to police?

Let me close with a final quote from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “There can be no real security while the conditions exist that make people desperate. It is not altruism but the highest version of self-interest. Talking is better than fighting.”