A Pilgrim’s Digression

Series of Baghdad Attacks kills at least 160

“We’re fighting them over there, so we don’t have to fight them here at home.”

As I read today about scores of Iraqi civilians murdered by terrorists, I can’t help but recall George Bush’s smiling face as he reassures us that we are protecting our “homeland” by fighting terrorists in Iraq. Meanwhile, the Bushniks in “Homeland Security” tell us the exact opposite when they say that another terrorist attack is not a matter of “if” but “when.” But that’s another story.

How cruel and morally suspect it is to invade a foreign land that did not attack us, thus bringing other innocents into the line of fire between ourselves and terrorists. And why did we do this terrible thing? So that Americans can go about their lives as usual. That is the noble cause for which we invaded Iraq.

No doubt the Iraqis who lost loved ones today are thanking George Bush for fighting terrorists in Iraq so that Americans do not have to fight them at home.

We brought terrorism to Iraq. I wonder if Americans will ever recognize that fact. Probably not.

For all the comparisons and contrasts between Vietnam and Iraq that pundits like to debate, one salient point is always neglected: America did not start the Vietnam War. We liberated Iraq from one kind of horror only to impose upon it something nearly as bad, a kind of dictatorship of terror.

I think we all need to pray for the Iraqi people today, and in addition, we should ask that God forgive America and our leaders for the death and destruction we brought to a land that already knew too much of murder.