Peace is not just a broad term, but it heavily relies on one's perspective. Peace can be simplistically achieved by ignorance -- stop paying attention to world events and you will be at greater peace -- in much the same way as the paradox of not hearing the sound of a tree falling in a forest implies that the tree was not felled.
Is peace without justice, peace? South Africa achieved a remarkable peace in race relations through their Peace and Reconciliation Committee that granted amnesty to those who came forward with admissions of criminal wrongdoing. (Northern) Ireland achieved a very similar peace when the Irish Republican Army was turned into a political party and past crimes essentially forgiven. In both cases, there were victims who never saw actual justice, but appear to have willingly accepted peace over justice.
When Tulsi Gabbard took a fact-finding trip to Syria and met with Bashar al-Assad, what sort of peace was she striving for? Was she striving for peace, or was she looking to alleviate her conscience and her cognitive dissonance by doubling down with confirmation bias? I ask, because for Gabbard to describe the trip as a fact-finding mission seems incongruous to her actions.
When people take a side -- e.g. you can achieve peace through ____(fill in the blank) -- many of them will then proceed to ignore the consequences of their position and actions. When confronted with the ugly truth of their position or the consequences that followed, most people sink deeper into their fallacy -- we all do this from time to time, but few knowingly realize it, and when confronted, most of us deny our failures.
I don't know what Gabbard's true motives were, despite her profession that she was on a fact-finding mission, after all, the "facts" provided by an autocratic despot have limited values. By her previous statements against war, however, it seems that she's picked a side and is currently seeking confirmation bias.
I can't bring myself to condemn Gabbard's actions, but I can't praise them, either. However, at the moment she doesn't seem to exhibit the thoughtfulness needed in this country. People, particularly Bernie supporters, will vehemently disagree with me, but their own thoughtfulness is questionable as they've taken a strict position that requires them to maintain fidelity to a dogma.
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