The Enemy in Iraq

Writing this now is extremely difficult. I have tears in my eyes. When you see violence in movies and you just kind of shrug it off because you realize when the scene ends the guy who was just run through with a sword is going to get up.

Many wonder if the Iraq/Afghanistan war is truly worth the time of day. Many now are going after American troops for "waterboarding" and other methods of supposed torture. Many protest and demand that we leave now no matter what the cost. Yet, I don't think they have seen videos like these and I wonder where the outrage from the waterboarding protesters are on this picture which begins to show a 12 year old beheading a man?

In video 1 (You can find it at http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/191234.php) you see a fire being stirred up and then the camera pans over to men in cowardly masks screaming in Arabic while three men are tied up with blindfolds on the ground. You can see another Al qeada man come over pouring some type of flammable liquid on the blindfolded men and then the last thing you hear is Allah Akbar as these three men are thrown into the fire...there isn't a "CUT".

In video 2 (You can find it at http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/191270.php) a 12-year old boy...a 12-year old boy...is talking to the camera with a machete in his hands. The scene pans over to another man lying on the ground with the 12 year old standing over him. You then see the boy bend down with the machete and begin to decapitate the man. Before that happened I stopped it...I knew there wasn't a "CUT"

I think of the story in Daniel and how King Nebuchadnezzar had them thrown into the fiery furnace. Unlike that story though these men who were thrown into the fire did not come out. They burned. It reminded me of that Shane and Shane song...and made me ask myself if I was ready for that? Would I be able to say as the chorus goes "burn us up, burn us up, burn us up oh King." That video begged me to ask myself...

I have no words for the 12 year old Taliban member. In fact I didn't even watch all of it...I couldn't. I want to ask people who want to pull out of Iraq and even Afghanistan NOW no matter what it costs if this is what they really want to leave the people to deal with. Could you really sleep at night knowing this would be GOVERNMENT POLICY if Al qeada/Taliban were allowed to take over if we left now?

Ravi Zacharias was asked about the War in Iraq and how President Bush, who claims to be a Christian, could live with himself after he ordered the deaths of thousands of people in Iraq. How could this be "moral"? Ravi responded brilliantly. He started saying that when you make decisions in a world where killing is already going on that you can't think that intervening is creating the killing. Sometimes interventions must be made to stop the killing. He then went on to state that he met a pastor from Baghdad who shared that he and his family used to share 3 onions every night with some bread but since the Americans came it was the first time in his life he can go to church in the open and have real food on his plate.

Ravi continued by assuring the man questioning that he is asking a legitimate question. However, because of the carnage that was already going on, for the world to sit back and do nothing would have been a crime of the worse kind. Ravi then asked what would have happened if Israel had not years ago taken out the nuclear reactor in Baghdad? What place would we be in today? Ravi continued that there were no simple answers but he asked him the following question. If you walked into a room and saw that your mother and sister were being raped and your only choice was either disable the man or let him continue raping them? Which would you choose? Like that situation President Bush had to read the situation and realize that sooner or later we would be fighting this battle either here or there. Ravi then stated that as he was driving in the United Arab Emirates a Pakistani driver said to him in Hindi that he is glad that President Bush is standing up for their people and this isn't the only person who shares this sentiment.

He closes the answer to the young mans question stating that he is not living in an imaginary world but he realizes that after Saddam comes Udday and Qusay, his sons. Who would have made Saddam make look like a backyard "scrap". The point then is not killing or not killing, the question is what does a person do when there already is killing?

There is a famous quote that "all that is needed for evil to live is for good men to do nothing." I agree. These videos, while horrendously graphic, show you the level of depravity that many of these deceived people will go. We can wave our signs all we want but the question is again...what do we do in a world where killing is already going on? We may think it was a mistake in the first place but why then justify making another in allowing it to worsen? I'm grateful today for the men and woman who won't let that happen and for a President who has the moral compass to make sure that it doesn't.

*Ravi Zacharias Podcast from 2/6/08 "Just Thinking: Utah University q&a part 3 of 4"