I Am Impotent

I am so incredibly worried and upset over the Israeli/Lebanon conflict right now. I'm not sure why this particular incident of violence is bothering me more than, oh, say all the OTHER incidents of violence going on all over the world.

I guess it's because when I really think about it, I just never can agree with the notion that lessons are best taught by bombing civilians and destroying children. I don't care about soldiers being kidnapped. I don't think one soldier is equivalent to dozens of innocent people. I get the position that Israel is in, but quite frankly, they're in that position because of force in the first place. I'm not saying I think Hamas and Hezbollah are right, because I don't.

I think both sides stink.

The fighting has me incredibly concerned right now. (And yes, I remain concerned about the violence my own country is perpetrating in Iraq right now--keep your self-righteousness to yourselves.)

After mulling it over, I've decided that there is a difference between violence that happens in Liberia, for instance, and this conflict. In situations like Liberia, many factors go into the spiral into war. There's generally a corrupt government, high unemployment & crime, kids don't have the luxury of going to school in peace. In Rwanda, for instance, nearly 80% of the adult population was illiterate. This made them easy prey to radio propaganda, and some reports of interpersonal violence bore out that some of the perpetrators were acting on what they had heard on the radio. Doesn't make it right. But there are some causes that you can point to with a clear finger. As a side tangent, that's one of the reasons I'm so into the illiteracy problem.

When your parents have been killed and you have no food and no money and you're 14 years old, it's understandable you'd run around with a Kalashnikov and point it at the food stand owner.

What's going on between Israel and Lebanon just seems like bald faced aggression. Levelling a city because of two soldiers? Targeting other cities until Hezbollah disbands? What saddens me is thinking of the children in Lebanon growing up now with devastation and death as an early memory, and the potential of carrying those feelings over onto their children and possibly even their grandchildren.

A news story about it