Wednesday, July 19, 2006

On the real cost of war

Okay, so Doug's written a really thoughtful and thought-provoking post on the current conflict in Israel and Lebanon. He makes a lot of good points about the potential repercussions, for Lebanon, for Israel, and for the possibility of peace in the Middle East, and I really can't think of anything to add.

Except for this: Go here. And then go here. Or go to the second one first and the first one second. And then before you start throwing down your comments about how the [insert racial slur here]s just need to go find their virgins, or about Israel has been waiting for an excuse to start something, remember who is really being hurt in this conflict. It's not the Israeli government, which has countless allies in this situation. And it's not Hezbollah, which manages to take every bomb and every death and turn it into a rallying cry for still more bombs and death. The people being hurt are folks very much like your mother. Or your sister. And they don't want war or death any more than your mother wants war or death.

Or maybe that's not safe to say. Judging from some of the comments I've read, there are a lot of people out there who are all about war and death. For all I know, they are mothers. Thank God they aren't mine.

No comments: