The Doctors Without Borders hospital is seen after explosions in Kunduz.
Doctors Without Borders, via Associated Press
Hospital personnel in Kabul moved an 8-year-old boy, wounded, along with his father, in an American airstrike in Kunduz on Saturday. Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
see Graph from NYT showing target pattern with apparent distance of Taliban from hospital
These two stories recently superimpose on our newscasts. They point to the only reliable and most
predictable result of our protracted war-on-terror warfighting, and its culture—a
collateral damage of death.
“A crowded hospital
in the embattled city of Kunduz that treats war wounded came under attack on
Saturday and the American military acknowledged that it may have killed 19
patients, staff members and others at the facility while firing on insurgents
nearby.”
“The airstrike on Saturday set off fires that
were still burning hours later, and a nurse who managed to climb out of the
debris described seeing colleagues so badly burned that they had died.”
“…Mr. Harper-Mercer
[the killer] was deeply involved with
firearms and had a small armory during his Snyder Hall rampage: body armor,
five handguns, a semiautomatic rifle and several magazines of ammunition. [later
reported as owning 14 guns, and also for years, always
wore combat boots and green army pants]
A makeshift memorial near the road leading to Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore.John Locher/Associated Press
We have become slaves to our guns. We debase ourselves in senseless routine
violence because of insane desire to protect ourselves at all costs, by any
means necessary. Yet, as in Jesus’ parable
of the farmer so pleased with brand new barns for his hoarded grain, “You fool! This very night your life will be
demanded from you.” Luke
12:13-21
We are all destined to die—why in a hail of bullets of
our hyper-secure society’s own making?
And this while many of us believe that we have been promised new life
beyond this world’s death, if we only follow Jesus’ way—the way of
unconditional mercy and nonviolent love.
References
Oregon Gunman’s
Father Dismayed by Lack of Gun Legislation - The New York Times
Oregon Killer
Described as Man of Few Words, Except on Topic of Guns – The New York Times
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