The images of war and killing were compelling. They made a simple case to punish the perpetrator. Not that all the facts were in, the complexities known, but then judgment and retribution works so much better before they are fully informed. It's impossibly sad, of course, that the images and news of people fleeing for their lives, month after month, have led only to a fierce protectionism - Keep 'em out. History so often has shown it easier to avenge the dead than to embrace and shelter the living. Fifty-nine cruise missles, a "targeted" military action, as if to say that violence for a specific purpose has no need for further explanation. We have become so used to our own military superiority and posturing that we no longer abide by the laws of the international community which prohibit attacks such as this. Vigilantism on the world stage is against the law as surely as it is within nations; it profoundly threatens the future of a peaceful and lawful world community. Unopposed by the larger community, it causes a festering tyranny and leads to the eternal chaos of Might makes Right. A deep sadness, again, as "patriots" and allies applauded the attack. Given the world's long murderous history and the terrible, merciless massacres and genocides of those who will kill for their vision of the truth, do we never ask How is that working out for us? How can it work out? It seems but a truism that each person believes in their allegiance to the truth. If killing is permissible for one, how can it lead to anything but endless Armageddon? Who is free of that error? It isn't just the Nazi's or Genghis Khan, but the Pilgrims and the US in Vietnam, China in Tibet, the rebels in the Sudan, the armies in the Middle East and Asia.
(formerly BDSWorks)
