The wages of war

We have seen the images before, we know the stories, the war has been all over our televisions, newspapers, magazines, and radios. I have never been too effcted, always able to distance myself from the reports of human suffering. Tonight, however, Richard Engle's report brought the horrible conditions and suffering present half way around the world from here.

Engle's reporting is not the comfortable up on the roof, or way behind the lines, he was int he middle of everything. This leads to many many images to make us all uncomfortable. He shows one of the first cruise missles to come down onto Bahgdad, landing in a market. Usually we see a coverd body or one in pretty good condition. Tonight, we got to see part of a hand held up for the camera by an angry Iraqi. The body was in many pieces, shreded by the explosion. Next, chared bodies, with bone visible. Finally, the united states contractors burned, dragged behind cars and hung from a bridge. With all of this, for the first time, I felt physicaly sick. I felt like throwing up, having been confronted with the "edited" parts of the war.

The horrible effects on the population can be seen all over this diary. Kidnappings, torture, murder, bombings, civil war, all this starts to blend together, painting a large picture, one of a country spiraling downward. Who caused this? We did. I love the line "so are you saying the Iraqis are better or worse now than under Saddam?" we are comparing ourselves to Saddam? That is how bad it is folks, we can no longer hold moral high ground, but instead must battle daily to assure ourselves, that, yes it is better than Saddam.

We need to act as the only superpower, heling, not hurting the people of the world. Is it possible to now leave the situation in a satisfactory way? I don't think so, but I hope so. It will take lotsof time, effort and negotitations to bring peace to the region, but now is the time to start. Peace cannot come through violence, through war and guns, through explosions and torture. It is through trust, through laying down your hubris and finally realizing that there is a better way. Perhaps then we won't have to face images like these ever again.