Fwd: [new-continuum] Blog entry for today ...

On 3/30/06, myxtplkn wrote:

I have posted it before and it never seems to take--killing innocent people that are not armed and the taking of hostages that are innocent and then threatening to kill them or killing them and then equating that to innocents killed accidentally does not excuse or cancel out the killing human beings neither hostile, hostages, insurgents, terrorists or whatever name is affixed to them There may be some debate as to which is the most horrifying, but the result is the same --dead people Somehow many of the posts seem to excuse bloodshed on one side or the other because each death cancels out the death of another. In terms of the process, IMO it is worse to kill an innocent person purposefully than it is if it happens accidentally. Enemy combatants do kill one another. Terrorism in terms of killing those that are innocent of wrongdoing is despicable no matter whose side you are on The release of hostages recently, has only been done because of the bad press the insurgents are getting from the World and not because they are such nice people--If they were all that nice they wouldn't have taken innocent people as hostages in the first place EdB

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elron Steele <elron6900@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 30, 2006 3:52 PM

Agreed Ed ... I think Gandhi may have said it best ...

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

Mahatma Gandhi , "Non-Violence in Peace and War"

There's no question the kidnappers are nasty people ... my point in my blog article was to say that they aren't the blood thirsty thugs they are portrayed to be, whatever else they may be. And when "security consultants" end up dead, but intelligent and nuanced reporters and Christian Peace Teams end up alive, we HAVE to ask why, and be willing to examine those reasons closely.

It seems clear to me that if indiscriminate killing were what the insurgency in Iraq were after, all 5 people would be dead. Its not a matter of good guys and bad guys, as the Gandhi quote points out, and we NEED to ask whu some people are killed, and others aren't. The answers won't be pleasant, but the questions have to be asked I think.