why is it that innocent people have to be killed an maimed?

i am sickened by the whole situtation in the mideast. it was bad enough with iraq and now we have this israeli/lebanon battle. i know that israel is trying to destroy any access for more weapons to come in from iran and syria, but what about the innocent people on both sides of the issue? it sickens me to see an old woman dripping blood, children being carried away on stretchers. where are these people going to go? many have lost their homes. how can food and medical supplies get into these areas to give relief?

i heard on the news this morning that the lebanese army is not strong enough to take on Hezbollah(sp?) that their forces are much stronger. so can the lebanese government be held responsbile? i don't know. maybe there afraid of Hezbollah too. i also heard that Hezbollah helps out the poor people which i believe many terrorist groups do. so naturally the poor people will support them. they are heroes to them.

the thing that keeps bothering me is that this is all because of religion -- that supposedly god gave this land to the jews, but wouldn't god (if there is one) give his chosen people a safer place to live?

i suppose i'm on a rant. before i logged on i said to my husband "i'm going to the DU to look for some sanity".

Isn't that a nice word for murder. It has a nice ring, like expendable. The people fighting aren't the ones making the decisons. If they were fighting, they wouldn't make want to fight. Since they don't get shot at, bombed, or maimed, they don't care. It's a sad state of affairs. The only reason our government somewhat cares, is because of oil prices. They go up, they can't import the cheap goods to fuel Wally World.

uncaring.

Of taking over another countries resources especially when the Religion of one warring party professes a faith that preaches Peace and not to kill thy neighbor?

Another question: If Conservatives don't want anyone to pay taxes for anything but the barest of necessities, why do they ask people give their lives proudly for war?

If people would stop emphasizing mythology and primitive superstition and instead put the focus on humanity the world would be a much better place. The sad fact is people will never reach that mindset before we destroy ourselves.

religion, it's the convergence of a number of factors. In any case, I know what you mean about the sickening toll on civilians.

sitting in my house minding my own business and a bomb comes and hits my house or my neighbor's house.

i don't know why but for some unexplainable reason this is bothering much more than what i've seen before. i think i've reached my breaking point. i'm about to burst into tears. :cry:

I teach young children (4&5) and I just imagine the fear in the young children who are living with war. It does bring me to tears. :cry:

The globe is finite. Money is finite. Oil is finite. Food is finite. The environment is finite. As soon as one (for lack of a better discription) *group* or country needs more than it can supply itself, it must go on the prowl for more to feed it's hunger. Everybody is fighting for a share of the pie which continues to shrink as demands get larger. Politically, economically, socially, culturaly etc.

Globalization is another way of saying *we cannot sustain ourselves, so we must exploit others*, hence we have wars, bribery, deceit, among other things in order to sustain our ever growing needs.

Last year Americans had a negative savings rate for the first time since one of the years of the Great Depression. On the other hand, Chinese households save an average of 40% of thier income. Is China invading anyone?

When I was growing up my father used to say "If you have more than you need, you probably have something that is someone elses". There will always be rich and poor. However, as the rich get extremely rich (nations too not just people) and they must get more to survive, it must come from the finite pool of resources.

To obtain these resources people die in war. People die of disease that is preventable. People die of starvation that is preventable.

:hi:

...you say, yet isn't it YOUR OWN religion that has taught you to despise death?? If the nature of reality is even a little more fluid than mainstream christianity allows, a horrible, but purposeful death could actually be a good thing. Implicit in this idea is you live again and everything you do is right....



.

and raised roman catholic. i don't recall being taught to despise death because if you were a good catholic you went to heaven.

it's been many many years since i have believed anything i was taught religion-wise.:think:

if an american soldier dies, then he/she made the unlimate sacrifice. they died for freedom or whatever any government wants to label it at the time.

a suicide bomber does exactly the same thing for exactly the same reasons. they died for their *cause*.

they are soldiers too. soldiers in a war that represents their main objective. however, most of the time the media calls them guerillas. this is also one of the basis for Geo Bush's idea that his administration need not follow international law. a religious organization may not have state affiliation. Bush said the law only applies to people from a legitimate *state*.

Because humankind is a highly successful, and highly vicious,
predator. Also a remarkably fecund predator. So we now have
lots of predators living and interacting in a cage of fixed
size.

It should surprise no one that the predators are now lashing
out at each other.

PS: It's gonna get worse. Worse than most can imagine.

interview with angelina jolie and anderson cooper and i could not believe what i was seeing and hearing -- cutting off hands and feet of children -- mutilating innocent people. sometimes i think there is more evil in the world than good, but i have to tell myself that it's not the case. it's hard to be optimistic in these "trying times."

should go and fight in their war, there would be a lot less wars I'm sure.

was out their fighting -- not sitting back on his laurels.

One who was there before and one who has been there for 50 + years because the West was not able to fight anti-semitism.

Unfortunately, at this point, the best thing we can hope is that they would sit around a table and find a solution. Unfortunately, extremist elements on "both sides" prevent that.

in the bible that says "god gave the land to the israelites". i'm far from a religious scholar, but i recall hearing this so many times.

of course, i personally do not read the bible or pay attention to it. to me it's a "book of fiction". i might get flamed for saying that, but it's just my feeling.

very religious jews were opposed to its creation. And most Palestinians are not very religious either.

Of course, a number of people who are living there are now rationalizing their actions like that, I am sure, but this is not the origin of the conflict and if both people could get rid of their extremes and sit around a table as they did earlier, the conflict could probably be solved.

(I agree with your assessment on the Bible though).

It is a lot easier to kill random civilians than to hit a military force that is hunkered down and protected. Especially if some of that "protection" consists of civilians. That said, seems like both sides are trying harder to hit civilian "targets" than each other.

DU. But truly, one wonders how many more illegal activities will be perpetuated in the guise of "Freedom" or whatever word is being used to sell this horror.

It is still just killing somewhat randomly. Why do people fight? sigh

. . . innocent people have to be killed an maimed?

1) Some Palestinians are willing to sacrifice their own and others' lives to either destroy Israel or remove Israelis from Palestine.

2) Their strategy is insurgency and terrorism. They attack Israeli citizens and military with suicide bombers to instill terror and they hide among the Palestinian population - so that Israel can't hurt them without killing innocent civilians. They don't wear uniforms so they can be recognized and they recruit teens.

3) It should be obvious by now that there's nothing that Israel could do politically to stop this. Like leave Gaza or return most of the West Bank or agree to a two state solution. None of that has worked. Instead Palestine elected admitted terrorists to run their new soon-to-be state. They kidnap and kill Israeli soldiers and they fire rockets into Israel from Gaza while Hizbollah does it from Lebanon.

4) Of course, Israel could leave their state to the Palestinians and move somewhere else. Like, maybe back to Poland or Germany where many of them migrated from.

5) It ain't gonna happen. Any more than we are going to give the USA back to the Native Americans we took it from. Instead we accommodate them somehow and let them have casinos and sell tobacco and fireworks - if they pay off the right Repub lobbyists and politicians. But, I guarantee you if Native Americans were sending suicide bombers into your shopping centers and killing your friends and family - those reservations would have big fences, concertina wire and tall walls with checkpoints around them in a heartbeat- with guard towers every 200 yards. And you'd be one happy person for that.

Finally, some few here at DU may agree with me. Most will get very angry that I am not so sympathetic to the poor Palestinians. And there's nothing I can say that will change anyone's mind on this - because this discussion entered into the zone of religious belief - and left the zone of logic - many years ago.

to have peace and it hasn't worked out. there are those in the mid-east that want israel out of the mid-east and some actually want it wiped off the face of the earth.