We must talk about war. An American Marine stands accused of shooting a wounded and unarmed terrorist. If he did, he was wrong! We do not know the details and I pray that he is innocent. That this man risks his life in the hell of Fallujah for me makes him my hero!! That our safety and joy require this hero be placed in a situation where he has to make this terrible choice, weighs heavily on all of us. I am grateful that I do not have to judge him. I caution those, who in their eagerness to score political points, are attacking him and our military.
I am directing the play A Few Good Men at the high school. (You can see it this Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night at 7:00 PM at Layton High's little theater.) At the end of the play, one of the attorneys demands a young Marine answer a question. "What are you supposed to fight for?" The answer, "Those who can't fight for themselves." We cannot become what we are justly fighting to destroy.
It is the justice of the War we must define and defend. This will need to be the subject of much consideration here in the Agora. To discuss this war reasonably we must set this Marine and his tragedy aside and consider the justice of the war itself. We must not condemn the whole of our military for the actions of one solider, nor the justice of this war because of unjust acts of an individual. We the People will vindicate our nation's actions by how we deal with our enemies and our warriors.
We will talk more about justice and war. For now we must keep the war separate from the individual actions of a warrior.
Every war has choices that were right ones and wrong ones. None are exempt form us judging the totality of a war as good or bad. I don't know what the situation was with this marine. But whatever it was it counts to what we are and the rightness of our cause. We have to remember to count each action to the totality of the war. War is never kind. Sometimes we have to evaluate bad situations without losing the sight of the long term goals.
ReplyDeleteBut whatever it was it counts to what we are and the rightness of our cause. We have to remember to count each action to the totality of the war.
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