God and War

Conceptions of God and religion have caused the large majority of current and past military conflicts. Allah and the Judaic/Christian God currently motivate most of the bloodshed and suffering that we see covered by our media outlets. Where the word 'terrorists', which I believe to be a term describing Middle Eastern people willing to defend their family and land against Western forces, is not used, 'Muslim Fundamentalists' or 'Islamic Jihadists' is used.

There has been a lot of honest and probing writing concerning the religious element of our current conflicts, but it tends to be of a scholarly nature rarely found in the New York Times. The media outlets that Americans read day in and day out portray Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel/Gaza as conflicts of political values and rights, representing the US as all that is secular, brave, and most importantly, free.

It is the terrorists who want death, and us who want peace. It is the 'Fundamentalists' who are irrational, aggressive and blood-thirsty, while we are the victims who reluctantly engage. 'Jihadists' kill, we defend and liberate. It was Hamas's rockets which caused the most recent deaths in Gaza, the 9/11 attackss which caused Shock and Awe in Afghanistan, Saddam Hussein who caused Iraq, and Hezbollah's kidnapping of Israeli soldiers which spawned the destruction of Beirut and Southern Lebanon in '06.

And while these false distinctions may be clear enough to many, what is so rarely discussed is perhaps the most crucial point of all; the elected officials of the US and many US citizens believe that Christian values ought to reign supreme over Islamic values. The common image of the 'repressed' Muslim woman wearing her hijab is is intolerable to liberated Westerners, while those same Westerners believe that the massive civilian death tolls of urban warfare are 'for the greater good'. Similarly, the madrassasof Pakistan and Afghanistan are unacceptable forums for education, but our impoverished urban and rural schools and curricula which create nationalistic and patriotic fervor are things to be proud of.

Some must suffer so the rest can be free. Some must die so that democracy can take hold. Some must burn so that the role of religion in these ancient societies may be made second fiddle to political order and process.

I wish that someone who makes a lot of money writing about this stuff had the guts to let loose about this stuff. Sadly, in our free society, that person wouldn't have the media as a megaphone for long.