Deaths Which are not My Own.

Perhaps one of the most hypocritical things one can do is declare that we should not intervene. It was, theoretically, intervention that stopped the Nazis in their tracks. Yet, I suppose that the Nazis were an aberration rather than a rule. As we look throughout history we find time and again that evil is confounded only after it has reached a limit. Napoleon just couldn't keep going. The Vikings settled down after raiding. Rome was not so much conquered, but fell apart. The great bloodletting by the Golden Horde and expansion by the Ottoman's was not checked by violence, so much as the ware and tare upon them internally.

And so I am not sure what to make of ISIS. I would want a strong deliverer if I were in the position of my brothers and sisters confronting such a demonic clan. I have read of a great clamor for the U.S. to be involved, protect the innocent, fight and kill the evil doers. Our question should never be should evil be resisted, but rather who and how should evil be resisted. 

America has had two very painfully bad wars in the Middle East. Al Qaeda, such that they were, perpetrated a terrible tragedy upon humanity. Saddam was a tyrannical dictator who kept rule through oppression and fear. There was a large outcry for the U.S. military to come over and intervene. Perhaps we didn't care enough to rebuilt, but that doesn't change the fact. Whatever your justification, if your desire to use force is what you belief you will be offering; than you are not concerned with winning for peace. Peace requires greater discipline than war; and while there are many things America is showing the world which it has, discipline is quickly becoming apparent that it is not one of them.

And so we find ourselves, after seeing and sometimes fighting skirmishes with lesser clans, to be facing a movement of a people. A condensed hatred drunk in like poison has brought a living death to people no longer people but with human form. ISIS is evil and people have sworn themselves to that evil. The oath has been made in blood. Sadly, in our rashness, we have conjured up the specter to feast upon brothers and sisters in another part of the world. The deed has already been done and monsters have already been summoned.

Now we find ourselves back in a place we had sworn we would have already left so many years ago. In our desire to fight a war without a projected peace, we end up bombing a place where we have not declared war. bellum erit in perpetuum

Yet do I let people die whose lives were disturbed and disrupted further than they already had been by actions caused by my people? Do I wipe my hands of the whole thing because my people failed to think something through? On the other hand, can we afford one more war? We have a president who has been pulling back from greater military escalation in a part of the world we have been attempting to make in our own image. Our nation has desired to send young men and women to fight a forever war. Meanwhile they fight in a place that is not our own by people who are trying to rebuild either on traditions of the better part of their culture or the demons that possess them. I cannot help but wonder what they must think when planes from the outside world rain down bombs upon them. 

Ultimately there is no satisfactory answer. We either fight a forever war or watch people die in the aftermath of hell we have created. Even if we think it is noble to play the champion and come to the rescue, what will guarantee our success? All of this runs through my mind when I think of ISIS. How are we to protect against the evil in this world? How do we make sure it doesn't harm us? How do we make sure it doesn't become us? There are no clear answers. Evil will always be just beyond our ability to understand, to feel, to relate to; but it will always be close at hand. We must just pray that something is closer, if just for a little. 

I firmly believe that what we must do is be willing to call things what they are. Let us dust off words we wished not to use. Let us call evil what it is: evil. For those of us who believe, let us pray for righteous judgment to befall evil itself. Finally, let us make sacrifices for the restoration of human life in reflection and homage to that which we believe is the source of human life.

I admit that I do not know how it should be done, but I do know what should be done. We must save the lives of those who suffer at the hands of evil. We must not let evil be disguised by human form and destroy that which seeks to destroy our shared humanity.