Israel and Lebanon

:: Captured Hezbollah Flag ::

How do you respond to a conflict like this? How do you rationalize the loss of human life? How do you deal with state-sanctioned terrorists? How do you bomb buildings and cities? How do you call women and children 'collateral damage?' How do you face God after committing such atrocities?

I am at a loss of how to respond to war. I know how I felt when the US went to war in Afghanistan, and how I felt when we send our troops to Iraq to topple a dictator. But, several years on... I am at a loss of how to justify any loss of life. Where do you draw the border line on defense?

I think it is much easier to be a safe American and to think about war, then it is to be outside of our borders and to think about war.

Paul Hindalong made a comment that struck me last week while I was at camp. He is a bit older, and so its a bit more fresh for him. But he said... "And to think, these were the people we had our missiles pointed at just a few years ago."

He was referring to the missile crisis of the 1960's, when the US and Russia faced off in a 'cold war.' I'm glad that we never actually went to war, I'm glad that [apart from 9/11] we haven't had American cities razed by bombs. I'm glad that growing up I never had to do bomb shelter drills.

But, my heart cries out for those in Lebanon and in Israel. My heart cries out for loss of life in the Gaza Strip.

How are you responding? What do you think about this? How do Christians react in the face of war?

CNN Recap article here.

Tagged: War, Politics