As one meditates and prays on life's questions, it becomes apparent how easy it is to be contradictory in our nature. A great example of this is the war in Iraq and what it means to each of us as a person. My thoughts on this come directly from this video found on You Tube. If this is true, and I believe it is, we are going down the dangerous road and our actions are unforgivable.
Contradictions as one grows spiritually and mentally will always happen. The more you need to grow, the more you will end up being contradictory. It is, of course, the person who doesn't change who contradicts themselves the most. If this is true, than I must have grown a lot over the past months, because my attitude about this war changes with every body I see, with every innocent life lost, and with every coffin laid to rest.
I find it odd that we went to war to punish those who attacked innocent people. We label the terrorists "monsters" and "evil". I will say that after watching the video, the American voices heard could have easily been Arabic and the weapon of choice a car bomb. We, in defending our "one nation, under God" have become our enemy. We have sunk to their level, and have taken on their morality.
It makes me wonder if we have sunk to their level and taken on their morality or if they have sunk to ours and taken on our morality years ago. We, a supposedly "Christian" nation, have rejected the teachings of Christ and have not only attacked our enemies, but also attack innocent people without provocation. Call it battle stress, call it an itch trigger, or just call it what it is: evil.
There is no excuse for this behavior. The man on the tractor, I wonder if he knew this was the last kiss he would give his son. The son, I wonder if he knew that the rains of hell were about to fall upon his family. Either way, we have made enemies here, and we need to ask for forgiveness.
Let's end the lunacy now, before forgiveness cannot be found. Peace.
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2 comments:
I have seen some contradictory information about this footage. I have heard said it is from Afghanistan and it has been around for years. The complete footage shows more information and allows you to make a better judgement call on what is really happening.
Regardless of this footage, I am sure we make mistakes in the war on terror. War stinks. I have said that before and my mind won't change on that note. I wish we weren't at war. I wish no one had to die. That being said however, as our soldiers try to protect themselves and others from terrorists there are bound to be casualties, on both sides. As one tries to show the "Bad" America is doing by dissecting footage from a military vehicle trying to detect terrorists I wonder. I wonder why we don't see this propaganda about the terrorists actions.
Just yesterday I saw another news report about a car bomb that killed 38. The complete footage you did not show spanned over an hour while the soldiers tried to determine if those four men were terrorists or not. Those men were under surveillance because they were suspected terrorists.
I wonder, did the people that placed that car bomb make the same assurance that all killed were evil American military. Why not? If their cause is so just why did they kill 38 people without some kind of justification that they were all our military. Aren't they mad at us? Why are they killing innocent people? Why aren't they being scrutinized?
Lets back up a few years.
The whole world seemed to be behind change in Iraq. the U.N. had waved there hand and said "No, no, no." several times. The world said they backed the U.N.. Nothing changed. Iraq still did evil to their own and others. the world stood by. Who should be responsible for the innocent that died during that time? Is that America's fault the world said it was Iraq's. I think the blame should fall on those that caused teh evil first, then on those that could have acted and didn't.
The terrorists did more evil they kiled more innocent people. The world and the U.N. talked. Their was no change except for the worse. The world and the U.N. talked. Seems like the history of the world wars. The world falls apart or better is torn apart and the world does not act to change evil and death until the U.S.A gets drawn into the fight.
We try to stop the killing of innocent people and some how we are the bad guys. We kill three guys, good or bad, and we are criminals of the world. What about the thousands killed by the terrorists? What about the towns that just disappeared?
We(America) are trying to make a difference. Those deaths of four men I place squarely on terrorists. We would not be there if we weren't drawn in. We would not have been drawn in if the world had not acted sooner. They all agreed there was a problem years ago. Why do they deny it now? Why do we only count the four dead?
Bud, you gotta open your heart and your mind here. I used to think just like you Vince, and then I discovered something: my own humanity.
Remember your anger on 9/11. The visions of planes being flown into the Trade Center, the visions of the building collapsing, and the recently released voices of the dead coming from the grave to show us their fear, their sorrow, and their love for their families. Remember your anger.
Remember your anger from the Oklahoma City bombings. The children maimed and killed for no good reason. The men and women blown to bits by fanatics bent on destroying something, well, Federal. Remember your anger.
In remembering your anger, you will begin to feel like an Iraqi who knows that innocent people are being killed by American soldiers each and every day we occupy their land. What do they do with that anger Vince? And what do we do about our loss of humanity?
Remember that we have gone to war to retaliate against those who would kill innocents in the name of their cause. Terrorists kill helpless men, women and children who have done nothing to them except present "soft" (easy) targets of opportunity. We portray ourselves as "better" than these murderers. Well, in order to be "better" you must be, in fact, "better".
The day we accept the murder of innocents is the day we become no better than those we fight. Remember Vince, al Qaeda has been at war with us since the mid 1990's, although we weren't quite at war with them. So, using the philosophy you just espoused, their actions were justifiable on 9/11 because, in war, there are bound to be casualties.
I don't believe that those who would load up a car with bombs and kill innocent civilians are "justified" in any way, shape or form. It is because of my strong believe that they ARE NOT that I believe we ARE NOT in the murder of innocent people, no matter what the circumstances. Remember, if we are in Iraq to free a people, then we are not there to murder them for plowing a field, no matter what the circumstances. Show me a gun (there wasn't any indication although the pilots of the Apache stated there were guns), show me an RPG, show me something that indicates terrorists are in action and I will leave it alone.
Nor is there proof that there was any lapse in time before the surveillance of these men and their murder. There was no indication they were suspected terrorists. If so, why did the pilots have to lie about the presence of guns on the men? Again, we cannot defeat our enemy on moral grounds by acting like them.
I appreciate the history you cite and the world's inaction on the part of innocent people. Agreed, blame should be place on those who commit evil and then on those who do nothing. You cannot, however, end evil by doing evil. Using your logic here, you must condemn the killings of innocent people, whether at the hands of Arabs or Americans, and then NOT be complicit in that evil by not acting on it.
I, for one, am not only counting the four dead. I do, however, firmly believe in the sanctity of all lives on all sides. I am not focusing on the four, but on each as an individual. The father who will never kiss his son again, the sister who will never see her brother, the wife who will never again see her husband, the mother who will never again see her son. They could have easily been you, or me, or our children. Again, I ask you to put Arabic in place of the English you hear on the video, and ask yourself, "how would I feel if this was a foreign army doing this on our soil to our sons and daughters?" The answer, of course, would not be "casualties are to be expected" or "war stinks". The pain is incalculable, and the effects immeasurable. I often find it odd that, in our country, the same pro-life Christian hypocrites who preach the sanctity of life are the ones who are not standing up asking for an end to this war. Instead, they are the ones who are supporting our President blindly, who are not crying at the loss of human life, and are not standing up asking for an end not only to this war, but to all loss of innocent life.
Remember, there are innocent people being murdered in Darfur. There is hunger and starvation in our own country. We must find a way to use our resources for the betterment of mankind, not it's destruction. Maybe then we would not have as many enemies as we have who are willing to die to kill us.
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