Today, Memorial Day, I made a promise to myself. It was a very simple promise; and it goes like this: THE DADDY WILL REMEMBER
To follow through, the daddy is going to do this post on war, something about which you don’t want to read and show a couple of pictures your government doesn’t want you to see. But fear not. He’ll keep it short and bittersweet.
No, the daddy won't have you read long arguments against an illegal, pre-emptive war. But he will suggest a few talking points to hone. Here are a few of the more important ones:
The
- The US invasion and occupation was unnecessary;
- It killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and caused even more to be displaced in other countries;
- It caused deeper divisions among ethnic groups;
- It caused the death of more than 4,000 US soldiers and psychologically damaged thousands more, perhaps for life;
- It distracted us from capturing the number one terrorist (Osama Bin Laden) and his crazies (Al Queda) in Afghanistan and near the Pakistani border, and, indeed, served as recruiting tool and perhaps made Al Queda stronger;
- It reconfigured power politics of the Middle East, transferring that power from the
- It is destroying untold numbers of US military families (something folks seemed to have forgotten on Memorial Day); and
- It transferred to
From the Church of England:
"Lord, we pray fervently for the people of Iraq
facing the horror of a full-scale war,
and for those people who may be called upon to fight.
Help us to persuade world leaders to continue negotiations.
Help all of us: individuals, nations, governments and world leaders
to remember --
the unnecessary loss of life for millions of innocent people,
the scale of human suffering that war brings,
the right of Iraqi people to determine their own future,
the gross violations of human rights and crimes against humanity
that are committed in the name of war,
nobody has total power over any country or its people but God alone.
Let us be open to God's words in our forthcoming decisions and try not
to be God ourselves."
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2 comments:
Thank you for showing the picture of the injured soldier to remind us what the war means, close up, to the soldiers fighting it. It is not pretty, and those kind of pictures don't seem very visible in this war.
The fact that we must pray for our leaders to negotiate is tragic.
I hope any veterans and families of soldiers reading your blog are comforted your words.
I also applaud you for not picking one religion or ideology for your prayers -- our world society desperately needs to evolve beyond tribal conflict.
Bless you MacDaddy.
Anon: "The fact that we must pray for our leaders to negotiate is tragic." Good point.
You brought up using prayers from different religions. Good point, but it makes me wonder about the propaganda of this war that keeps us from understanding what we do to others as well as ourselves in the name of democracy. Not only do we not know the prayers of other people; we don't know what they think about what we do them in the name of democracy. Where is the picture of that injured Iraqi girl, and what do the members of her family think about the "shock and awe" bombing that caused her injuries? And when was the last time we heard what leaders in the Middle East had to say about our invasion and continued occupation of Iraq, especially leaders that are neighbors of Iraq?
We may watch news on tv, but we still don't know the pain we do to others and, ultimately, ourselves. Thanks for the insights.
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