I have really tried to curb my commentary on the war, because its such a touchy subject.  I have met and interacted with many people directly and indirectly affected in this war.  I have friends with family in Baghdad, I have friends who have done two tours in Iraq, I have colleagues that have done time in both Iraq and Afghanistan, I have colleagues who lived in Iraq and Pakistan.  It is impossible for me to personally get away from this war, even if I boycott the news media.

Now, as it seems, we are starting a secret war on Iran, and the Iranians are waging a secret war on Iraq. (Though they aren’t too secret, are they?) When are we going to realize that we are in a stalemate situation?  There comes a point in any endeavor where you should evaluate the chance of success and the risks associated with continuing that endeavor.  At this point, we have a very slim chance of doing anything good in that region, from Israel to Afghanistan.  We are making small victories at the price of our credibility in the world community.  I feel horribly for all the young people we’ve sent off to a lost cause.  It is obvious that our troops are coming back with physical wounds and significant mental damage. 

One of the most interesting conversations I’ve had in the last few months was a conversation with a young man who has been to Iraq, twice.  He told myself and my wife a story about a raid gone bad where he was involved in a sweep through buildings in Baghdad.  He and his squad came into a house where there was a family living, possibly harboring an insurgent.  When they tried to corral the family to question them, they scattered and tried to escape.  One young women, who was followed by the solider I spoke with, ran for her room and tried to grab some sort of weapon from a nightstand.  The solider was forced to shoot her in the chest, ending her life.  And it was clear to me that something died in this soldier with that woman.  War is not hell, its the devil himself.  The solider constantly reminded himself, and us, that he had no choice. But it was very clear that it wasn’t us he was trying to convince.

The Iraq war has begun to escalate into a festering wound of misdirection, apathy and greed.  Our troops, our children, are being used to fight in the name of conjecture.  And though we lament the war, protesting and boycotting, we are in our 7th year and no end in sight, a long season in hell. It is more apparent to me now, more than ever, that there simply is no good reaction to a warlike action.  We must find ways to peacefully resolve these persistent issues.  But, what is more important, is that we need to start paying more attention to what is happening in our own country so that we can lead the way in a more global sense.  How can we be the model when we have so many issues within our own borders?

When you get down to the root of all this strife in the world, with few exceptions, it all comes back to our perception of What God Wants.  And as the saying goes, perception is reality. So we perceive that the embodiment of Love, wants us to kill others who have a different perception.  Does war beget love?  Its obvious that love can beget war, as we’ve seen throughout history, from Helen of Troy on down. And how can we be so arrogant that we have any concept of What God Wants?  We don’t even know what we want.

So, Iran, our enduring nemesis, has once again lured us into machinations that will ultimately end in some conflict.  If we do proceed with the attack on Iran, it is not going to fix anything.  We need to stop supporting Israel’s poor decisions and we need to start admonishing them for their theocratic views.  Muslims and Jews can live together in peace and harmony, but the question was never “can” but “do they want”.  It is clear to me that there will be no peace in that region as long as we continue to throw money, fuel, on the fire of a long standing feud in the name of god.  I am not the least bit anti-Semitic, but I do think that we need to start letting Israel be accountable, alone, for their inability to compromise.  If we continue to openly support Israel, no matter how absurd their stance is, we will all suffer.  Of this you can be sure.

Life with the rest of humanity is a series of compromises.  No one should be exempt from this simple fact.