An annotated conversation about war, adapted from Facebook:
(click on links for annotations)
Alice: We are bombing over Syria! Right now. We are bombing. Oh, my heart hurts.
Russ: Hate
Alice: The thing is this … there are children. Women. Men who want only to provide for their little families. There are doggies and kitties, goats maybe. Lives. Their lives are gone forever. People terrorized, people grieving, people forever lost. There is no good that comes from war. No noble thing at all.
Russ: War, what is it good for…absolutely nothing
Deborah: And Russia is next.
Alice: Deb, sadly, you may be right.
Nathan: Yes, let’s let ISIS sell pre-pubescent girls into sexual slavery (after giving them clitorectomies), slaughter entire villages, chase them
up a mountain to starve, have sex with the goats (captured on video), whip kitties to death with a stick, starve dogs and then light them on fire when they’re too weak to move. Yes, war is good for nothing. Let’s just let ISIS do whatever they want. They’re promising to behead random Americans, and there’s evidence they’ve come across the border from Mexico. Why fight against them in Syria, when we can do it here?
Russ: Nathan, I will be right behind you following your advance
What Would God have Americans Do?
Alice: Nathan, what you describe is certain horror. It’s hard to read your words. Still, I wonder … What does the Torah say about war and the responsibility to kill people in a far off land who do horrific things to their people? What would God have Americans do, according to the Torah? Remember, you’re teaching a neophyte about the nature of God.
Phyllis: I hate it too but ISIS has to be stopped.
Karen: But violence brings forth more violence. We live in a scary world.
Nathan: Not responding to violence gives it license to grow.
Leslie: Can’t believe it! Worked 2 years ago with a little girl whose family escaped Syria. Can you imagine? I can’t. She had the sweetest smile…
Please note: videos of ISIS torture of cats, dogs, and humans of all ages are ubiquitous, and have not been included to illustrate; rather, we have included a video of Hamas terrorists pleasuring goats. Although disgusting, it’s more tolerable to watch. The torture videos, if you are inclined to see them, can easily be accessed through web searches.
You are welcome to continue the conversation in the comments
I am a retired university professor in history, and I regard Isis as the greatest threat in the last 500 years. Isis has no borders and a customs and passport control. They intend to plant their flag on the White House, as the entire world is their destined caliphate. Their leaders are like Gengis Khan. It is sad that the US and UK must again clean up the mess. Why wont their own brothers do something? I am basically a pacifist, but in this scenario maybe some files of Ebola should be dropped on these madmen to wipe them out rapidly and inevitably.
ADELE