Religion and War

[Ivo Skoric]

Anglo-American campaign in Iraq, which is a questionable 
endeavor by itself, since it was unprovoked by Iraqis and 
unsanctioned by the pertinent world's body (UN Security Council), 
gets worse by the day - with an increase of civilian casualties, 
outrageous conduct of both sides (selling water?), media 
manipulation, the obvious road to a long and perditious street battle 
- but I kind of hoped that this conflict would be kept at level at least 
a notch above the conflicts that we have witnessed in the Balkans 
recently - and that at least from the aggressor in this conflict: given 
that the British and the Americans are the ubiquitous champions of 
human rights, press freedoms, and international law, one would 
expect that they would hold at least themselves accountable to 
their own high standards. 

So, the story that a pamphlet was recently distributed to U.S. 
Marines asking them to pray not for themselves and their 
commrades, not for Iraqi civilians and their enemies that they are 
about to kill (which would be their Christian duty), but for their 
"president and his advisers" to "be strong and courageous to do 
what is right regardless of critics", struck me as going over the 
edge of insanity we observed in Bosnia. This piece of ill-conceived 
propaganda smacks of the Al Qaeda suicide bomber training 
manual. Since, as it so far became quite clear what 'president and 
his advisers' think that 'it is right', they are essentially required to 
pray for themselves to be exposed to a risk of death and/or murder. 
The pamphlets were created by In Touch Ministries, an evangelical 
group that says "We may not all be in the military, but we are all 
engaged in warfare ... spiritual warfare."

And what then is the difference between the US Marines and 
Hamas?

http://www.thenation.com/outrage/index.mhtml?bid=6&pid=531

ivo