THE fighting may have ceased, the bombs and rockets aren’t raining down, but the lives and homes of so many people in Lebanon and Israel lie in ruins.
Once more, brute force was applied long before diplomacy could bring some kind of resolution.
Meanwhile, in Iraq, that war of choice not necessity continues a quagmire from which we here in Australia refuse to disengage.
These recent and ongoing tragic events remind me of the words of General (later President) Eisenhower, who at the end of World War II, said, “I hate war, as only a soldier who has lived through it can; only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility and its stupidity”.
All that was so obviously true when, in the weeks before the Lebanese/Israeli war ceased, we learned that the USA was rushing through an order of precision-guided bombs in the way that someone would rush through an order of shoes or cosmetics to Israel, and to its planes that were bombing sites in Beirut. Beirut was where the US Embassy was working furiously to get its citizens out of the way of American-made and supplied armaments, while George W. Bush kept urging “Restraint”.
Meanwhile, one general commanding the troops evacuating the American citizens said on TV, “This is all about Americans helping Americans, and it gives you a great feeling. This is in fact a labour of love”.
War indeed has its own logic!
At the same time, other US soldiers were bringing in humanitarian aid supplies, a strange source of resources, given that whole areas of Lebanon were undergoing involuntary destruction!
Whatever the vicissitudes of this and every insane conflict, the bottom line is that the ones most affected have been the civilians. It is the children and non-combatants who pay the highest price.
When will we learn that every air strike that produces more innocent death and the destruction of infrastructure is the seedbed for the next generation’s hatred?
It has all been an open display of the brutality, futility and stupidity that Eisenhower spoke about 60 years ago. Violence again has shown itself for what it really is.
And the most hideous part is that God is invoked so often.
Christian and Muslim leaders appropriate (misappropriate) the language, symbols and writings of our sacred books, all offering victory and not a word of forgiveness.
It is blasphemous and idolatrous! And the worst thing is that it is immensely popular!
FR PASCHAL KEARNEY
Bremer Bay, WA
