War is ugly, God is good…
March 24th, 2010
It’s been seven years since the War in Iraq began.
Seven years.
4704 coalition soldiers have died in those seven years and there’s no telling how many Iraqi soldiers and innocent civilians have died. Current estimates are between 95,000 and 105,000.
Over at Sojo.net Shane Claiborne shares some of his experience of taking part in a Truth Commission that met this week about the War in Iraq.
It was some 40 years ago that Dr. King confessed that America had become “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” Last night we heard the echoes of Dr. King’s prophetic voice… and from that same pulpit.
Claiborne continues, sharing some of the many stories he experienced during the event…
It was hard to sleep after listening to the horrors of war. In fact one speaker said this is the penance we get for surviving the world we have helped destroy. What has happened to the conscience of our country when soldiers are forced to drive their tanks over cardboard cutouts of children so they won’t hesitate when they have to run over real bodies? As we heard one soldier confess last night — cardboard cutouts cannot prepare you for the sound of hearing a child’s body crush beneath the tank. And it will take more than a truth commission to heal from that memory. But it was a beginning.
War is ugly. And it continues both in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world.
But it doesn’t have to.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore. – Isaiah 2:4
What would that look like today? What would our lives look like if we believed this was possible? What would our communities and neighborhoods look like?
Will you be the one to help make the change?
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