The Eve of Destruction
It's Christmas Eve now in Iraq as I write this, just a few hours drive from the lands Jesus Christ walked and preached for peace.
"Peace on Earth, goodwill towards man."
Are they just words? Or should they drive our actions as men and women of conscience?
This is not about our soldiers in Iraq, as they are mere victims, treated as little more than inventory by our leaders, all of whom should know better. On this, the holiest holiday in our calendar — it is a good time to seek deep truths, the kind of truths we often only admit to ourselves deep in the night.
On a Christmas Eve 60 years ago, far more troops prayed that year would be their last doing an awful but needed duty: ridding the world of the evil that was Nazism. There was no need for FDR to fabricate reasons to fight Adolph Hitler; to look into the man's eyes was to see the face of evil.
Such a case was never made about Saddam Hussein, just another two-bit dictator propped up for years by the United States and nothing more than a convenient target for our dishonest leaders to use as a punching bag. The funny thing, though, is that the punching bag keeps punching back, even though he's been in custody for more than a year. Nearly 1,300 Wives, mothers, fathers, sons, sisters, brothers and friends know first-hand the pain of loss this Christmas.
And for what? Unlike Hitler and the Nazis, where the reasons were all too clear, maybe weren't even clear enough until after the war, the why keeps changing when the old reason doesn't hold up.
Our president, whose words make him out to be a man of Jesus and whose actions make him out to be an enemy of everything Jesus stood for, has much to answer for. But this Christmas, as you enjoy your gifts and family and church services, ask yourself how much blood is on your hands. How many people have died because you were afraid to rock the boat and listen to that voice deep inside telling you this is all wrong.
On this Christmas Eve ask yourself this question, too: if he were with you right now, what would Jesus tell you is right and wrong?
From all of us at the Aggressive Progressive, Merry Christmas, and we'll see you again on Sunday.
