Random thoughts from beyond middle age - as I wonder/wander through life.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Peace takes courage
I stumbled onto this video - made by a 16-year-old home schooler - and posted on her website: peacetakescourage.com. I don't really have anything to say. (h/t - Mike C.)
I'd post a counterpoint to her video, but there weren't any cameras there when the Kurdish children spat out blood and collapsed after Saddam hit their village with mustard gas. I could put it in Powerpoint, add the theme music from Platoon and act richeously smug.
We are all entitled to our opinions, but I'm sorry, I don't feel it's being righteously smug to not want to see children (or anyone else) suffer - no matter the dispenser of the atrocity.
Does it help to watch it and picture German kids? I'm sure we killed quite a few of them.
We agree that children suffering is terrible. Be it jewish children at the hands of Hitler or the children of Dresden destroyed by our bombs. Unintended by us, intended by him, but dead is dead. However, Hitler's death toll stopped at 6 million. A large number unless you consider the fact that he could have lived a full life implementing "the final solution." And those that did live after his removal had better lives, and their children better still, and THEIR children had 31 Flavors and Dunkin' Donuts in the same building--decadence.
The future is where we're going with this.
By the way, ABC (reluctant to say the least) reported last night that things were better in Baghdad since the deployment of static troops. Will it last? I dunno, but we're trying.
Oh, and while we're torturing ourselves, I found a picture from that Kurdish village Saddam gassed:
I can understand where people stand with the just-war theory. I'm not saying I agree with it, but I can understand and respect people's opinions who do. Personally, I think this video would have been just as moving, or maybe even more so, without the references to Bush. But I believe killing is wrong - period.
There are some people, who, when they see someone suffer (especially someone close to them), they want to retaliate and make someone pay. There are others, who, when they see someone suffer, they hope and pray that no one will ever have to suffer like that again. I think it's possible we both fall into the latter category, we just have different ideals on how to see it carried out.
This probably goes back to the whole "God will resolve it" vs "God will use ME to resolve it" discussion.
I wish we could kill cancer cells without touching even one good cell, and I wish we could erradicate evil without hurting one innocent person. But evil knows where to hide...among the good.
I know how you are, and you'd rather feel the pain every time than build up a callous--and I can respect that you suffer with the suffering. That's what makes you good at what you do.
So Hitler killed Jewish kids and we killed German kids. Saddam killed Kurdish kids so we killed Iraqi kids. How is any of this making things any better? All I see is the cycle of violence continuing on and on ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
7 comments:
I'd post a counterpoint to her video, but there weren't any cameras there when the Kurdish children spat out blood and collapsed after Saddam hit their village with mustard gas. I could put it in Powerpoint, add the theme music from Platoon and act richeously smug.
We are all entitled to our opinions, but I'm sorry, I don't feel it's being righteously smug to not want to see children (or anyone else) suffer - no matter the dispenser of the atrocity.
See... I knew you REALLY had something to say. :)
Does it help to watch it and picture German kids? I'm sure we killed quite a few of them.
We agree that children suffering is terrible. Be it jewish children at the hands of Hitler or the children of Dresden destroyed by our bombs. Unintended by us, intended by him, but dead is dead. However, Hitler's death toll stopped at 6 million. A large number unless you consider the fact that he could have lived a full life implementing "the final solution." And those that did live after his removal had better lives, and their children better still, and THEIR children had 31 Flavors and Dunkin' Donuts in the same building--decadence.
The future is where we're going with this.
By the way, ABC (reluctant to say the least) reported last night that things were better in Baghdad since the deployment of static troops. Will it last? I dunno, but we're trying.
Oh, and while we're torturing ourselves, I found a picture from that Kurdish village Saddam gassed:
http://gopvixen.blogs.com/gop_vixen/images/kurds_1.jpg
I can understand where people stand with the just-war theory. I'm not saying I agree with it, but I can understand and respect people's opinions who do. Personally, I think this video would have been just as moving, or maybe even more so, without the references to Bush. But I believe killing is wrong - period.
There are some people, who, when they see someone suffer (especially someone close to them), they want to retaliate and make someone pay. There are others, who, when they see someone suffer, they hope and pray that no one will ever have to suffer like that again. I think it's possible we both fall into the latter category, we just have different ideals on how to see it carried out.
This probably goes back to the whole "God will resolve it" vs "God will use ME to resolve it" discussion.
I wish we could kill cancer cells without touching even one good cell, and I wish we could erradicate evil without hurting one innocent person. But evil knows where to hide...among the good.
I know how you are, and you'd rather feel the pain every time than build up a callous--and I can respect that you suffer with the suffering. That's what makes you good at what you do.
So Hitler killed Jewish kids and we killed German kids. Saddam killed Kurdish kids so we killed Iraqi kids. How is any of this making things any better? All I see is the cycle of violence continuing on and on ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
Did you just say we should have left Hitler alone?
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