Tyrannis Liberatores
Tyranny of the liberators
With the passing of the third anniversary of the US-led war for Iraqi freedom, I have decided "enough is enough". The 5-page online piece in today's NY Times detailing the long litany of even more abuses of Iraqis at the hands of Americans is sickening. A short summary of some of the tortures at Camp Nama:
Using prisoners as paintball targets: "No Blood, No Foul: The High Five Paintball Club".
An 18-year-old man suspected of selling cars to members of the Zarqawi terrorist network was seized with his entire family at their home in Baghdad. Task force soldiers beat him repeatedly with a rifle butt and punched him in the head and kidneys.
Some detainees were kept in what was known as Motel 6, a group of crudely built plywood shacks that reeked of urine and excrement. The shacks were cramped, forcing many prisoners to squat or crouch.
Jailers often blared rap music or rock 'n' roll at deafening decibels over a loudspeaker to unnerve their subjects.
Some detainees were stripped naked and had cold water thrown on them to cause the sensation of drowning.
Four Special Operations soldiers from the task force were punished for "excessive use of force" and administering electric shocks to detainees with stun guns.
Couple this with the series of photos from Abu Ghraib and the picture of US handling of Iraqi prisoners is downright saddening. The worst part? I suppose that most of my countrymen just don't care. "Iraqis are terrorists." "These people are prisoners, hell-bent on attacking us, why not torture them, they might provide information that will prevent us from dying." etc etc.
I have just 2 thoughts in response: 1- torture is never justifiable, in any situation, ever. 2- is this the way to behave as a freedom-bringing force? The US has lost all credibility in my mind as a force of liberty. I would rather face whatever consequence may come than resort to such humiliating and demeaning behavior, all done in the name of "information gathering". (Yea right, and Hitler should win a prize in medicine for his "experiments" in the 30s & 40s).
The sad reality is that all people - Germans, Iraqis, Afghans, Americans, Brits, Bajans, Romans, Egyptians, Babylonians, Japanese, cannibal tribes, etc. etc. - are innately sinful, possessing desires that we see expressed when people and groups are given such power over their fellow man.
I cannot trust my government and its military representative. Therefore, after wavering for many years and taking a situational approach, I have decided to finally come out against war in all its horrible forms. The quotes below, especially the last two, reveal the true heart of God which I believe is inside of me. What would my life look like if I treated my enemies such?
"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." - Jesus.
"It is mine to avenge; I will repay." - God
"If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you." - Proverb
posted by Brad @ 1:55 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Agreed. While I don't believe the grand majority of US soldiers are doing these horrendous things to people, it has happened enough to make me wonder what it is we're really accomplishing. Another Vietnam? Just what we need. More enemies? When people representing us act this way, is it any wonder that the rest of the world sees us as such?
Yes, good point, I am glad that not all US military personnel are engaged in such abuses. It would be insane otherwise. I tried to walk a delicate line by deciding against war, not against specific soldiers.
The first quote has made me sit up and take notice several times...it's actually quite a humbling thought. So are the others.
So much propaganda is coming from both sides, it's difficult to know who to believe. If anyone doubts the ubiquitousness of the sinful nature, they can just watch the news!
I miss Ronald Reagan.
Now, not that i am disagreeing with you at all, but this just shows that we are in the day of the media. But for real, being the history lord, I gotta take another approach to this. And.. with this being the age of media it makes only one difference... that we finally know about this. War is war. There are no rules in war. The object is to win at any cost. I can guarantee that in every single war in known history and unknown history, excluding none, that things just as horrible and also worse have happened. The goal is to destroy the enemy and to demoralize them so as to think they can never win against their enemies. I mean, that is why we bombed Dresden, is it not? The war was pretty much over, but we had to bomb them so as to break the back of our enemy. We can win the physical battle, but the way you really win is to break them mentally so as to never want to mess with us again. It's war man, and I don't care what the Geneva Convention says, with war, it's every man for himself. All's fair game.
Hey, I still love ya, and pumped to be close to ya next year. xoxoxoxox
hey brad! direct your attention to my blog and you will see a list of fun questions. most of them came from your conversations with my roomie. i've gotten some interesting answers so far. sadly, not many people answer correctly to question #2...
Hey Brad,
I agree that war is hell, and it would be silly of me to come out and say "yay, I love war, let's do it all the time!". Sometimes, however, and I still feel this way, the alternative to not going to war is worse than doing so. The U.S. certainly felt that way in WWII, and I think the world might be a very different place had the courageous men and women of the armed forces not attacked Germany and brought it to its knees, and the same thing with Japan (which attacked us first). Does that mean there were not atrocities committed at the hands of our soldiers? Of course not, and I'm not saying those things aren't evil. But again, the consequences of not taking part in a war in our fallen world can sometimes still be worse than doing so. That's why I'm overall proud of our armed forces for the sacrifices they make, and I repudiate even more strongly those who commit such atrocities, because they give the rest of them a bad name, but that's no reason for me to throw the baby out with the bathwater and take a stance against the entire military...
Now, we can argue whether or not the Iraq war fits into this category, but that's not my point. I believe that Christians can still support wars and be consistent, for the reasons I outlined above, and they can even be members of the armed forces. God can use Christians there, to be sure!
At any rate, I look forward to the time, in heaven, when all wars will be banished forever, and we will live in true peace, both inside and out, but until then, we unfortunately live in a world where war is a reality and sometimes a necessity.
That's more or less my position.
I should also point out that the U.S. is certainly not the only ones performing such horrible things. What about these insurgent groups that delight in kidnapping PEACE activists and murdering them? You can't reason with these kind of folks, just like the European powers ultimately couldn't reason with Hitler.
Also, with all the U.S. military bashing going on in the media, I can't resist pointing out the many good things they have done in relief efforts throughout the world: but of course nobody seems to care about those in our media. What about the aid we brought to the tsunami victims (too bad we couldn't have been just as good to our own hurricane victims in a timely manner) as an example?
Sorry, that last anonymous was me...
Dan, very good points, thanks for sharing your insight. However, I still cannot reconcile supporting war as a follower of Christ. Perhaps I am being hypocritical, because we are guaranteed a tremendous war (or something akin to war) at the last judgement, but I hate the endless death of war - whether the war was perpetrated in the name of evil or of righteousness. Isn't the ultimate root of war protection? Protecting territory, lifestyle, property, even life itself? Can protecting these "rights" be justified by the believer? I concur that the passions that arise from injustice (you mentioned WWII, which is a macro scale example) are righteous and from God! But what do we gain by fighting? I suggest not inaction; rather, boldly serve the brother in need. Pray, send aid, even go -- but don't trust in evil to bring about justice. That is God's to accomplish!
(as I told Zach, please do not ask me to reconcile my anti-war position with the many instances of God-led violence chronicled in the Old Testament. I am not a biblical scholar, but suffice to say, violent justice is in the character of God, and praise him that [for now] that violence was meted out on the body of Jesus, giving all peoples a blessedly long opportunity to repent.)
I'd like to state one more point on my part. First of all, I wasn't saying I liked war. I was just saying that you can't put rules to war. Secondly, sorry dan, but I think that you can't even begin to think that Iraq and WWII fall in the same category. I agree that WWII was a necessary battle. Yet, thirdly, I have never supported this war with Iraq. I have been calling it since the beginning of the war, that this war was going to be bad. Just looking at history at all the countries the US has overthrown and taken over and tried to rebuild again, they never end well. The people there don'twant us to be there. We don't want to be there, and Everything ends up bad. For examples, look at the acquisition of the Philipines after the Spanish-American War, or look at the overthrow of the communist government of Guatemala in the 60's. Look at the attempt on Nicaragua in the 70's/80's and the numerous attempts at several other countries including "Cuba, Vietnam, Korea, and pretty much every country in Central America in the middle half of the 20th century. Nothing really ever works out. So, i say, screw it all. I don'treally care anymore.
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