tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22980286.post908965278676068105..comments2024-03-28T10:26:20.408-04:00Comments on Ponderings on a Faith Journey: Isn't Life Complicated?Robert Cornwallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04581876323110725024noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22980286.post-6607929545625386722011-03-21T20:00:21.637-04:002011-03-21T20:00:21.637-04:00An interesting and timely post. The situation add...An interesting and timely post. The situation addressed by Fitch and his fellow police officers has a real world analog in Libya. <br /><br />I make no apology for being a radical pacifist. But it is one thing for me to make the pledge - because after all that is the most one can do until called on to die for your position - or watch someone else you love die - and another matter altogether to calmly and rationally argue for non-violence in the face of slaughter. <br /><br />So I watch the situation unfold in Libya and I cannot help but respond to the challenge of Ghadafi's threat to massacre his people - and to the systematic defeat of a rebellion which most Americans and most informed people in the world support. Do we intervene? How do I respond as a pacifist? I can offer no solution to the threatened slaughter. Can I just sit back and sincerely say that intervention is wrong? Clearly I would choose another alternative, but none is offered, and still Ghadafi's forces advance. I am left sit quietly watching in horror, silenced by my own impotence.<br /><br />How do I respond to the violence in Libya as a responsible pacifist? For the dead and dying the question is not academic.<br /><br />By the way, those who decry the collateral damage as well as the unexpected magnitude of the international campaign to impose the no-fly zone really need to be quiet. It is axiomatic that in war, especially with missiles launched from afar that there will be collateral damage. The notion of precision attack is a myth. Moreover, before putting pilots at risk in over-flying a hostile nation, you have to expect that the very first strike will be against hostile air defense systems, typically anti-aircraft batteries - usually located in or near populated cities.<br /><br />To all those who called for a no fly zone, what did they expect to see? Did they think bombs and missiles could be fired and no one would get hurt? Did they think the bombs could discern the innocent from the guilty? With war there are going to be casualties. War is not a video game or a movie, it is hell, really, HELL. It is not peaceful; soldiers shoot first and shoot to kill, and shoot with a wide angle shot. <br /><br />All that being said, I am at a loss, and I find no guidance from Scripture and no recourse but prayer. And impotent silence. <br /><br />"Ah ya don't believe we're on the eve of destruction." <br /><br />Yep, life is complicated.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06245470576919732592noreply@blogger.com