War, the great haggler, changes gold to dust, and bodies of mothers' sons to ashes in funeral urns. Aeschylus (525-456 BCE)
|
Why should we hear about body bags
and deaths? Oh, I mean, it’s not relevant. So why should I waste my
beautiful mind on something like that? |
| PART I | ETHICAL CANONS CONCERNING WAR | |
| Chapter 1 | About Ethical Canons and War | |
| Chapter 2 | Decisions Precipitating War | |
|
Chapter 3 | Human Sacrifice |
| Chapter 4 | Amiriyah Shelter | |
| PART II | ETHICAL CANONS CONCERNING EQUALITY | |
| Chapter 5 | Slavery | |
| Chapter 6 | Arens' Atrocity Attribution Theory | |
| Chapter 7 | Genocide of Native Americans | |
| Chapter 8 | Intermarriage | |
| PART III | ETHICAL CANONS CONCERNING JUSTICE | |
| Chapter 9 | Incarceration | |
| Chapter 10 | Reemergence of Torture | |
| Chapter 11 | Witchcraft Trials | |
| Chapter 12 | Trials of Heretics | |
| PART IV | ETHICAL CANONS CONCERNING RELIGION | |
| Chapter 13 | The New and Old Testaments | |
| Chapter 14 | Transplanted Mentality | |
| Chapter 15 | God and His Messengers | |
| PART V | ETHICAL CANONS CONCERNING EMPATHY | |
| Chapter 16 | Karla Tucker and George W. Bush | |
| Chapter 17 | A Girl with the Almond Eyes | |
| Chapter 18 | Beyond Partiality: Building a World of Laughter and Love |
Human Sacrifice
 |
There are many forms of human sacrifice, one of them being the sacrifice that takes place when parents offer their children to fight in aggressive wars justified by the 'noble cause,' blind patriotism, or the 'deus vult' mantra. One of the darkest chapters of Christianity, the Children's Crusades, were launched in 1212. There were two Children's Crusades, one originating in France and the other one in Germany. Following military setbacks of the Fourth Crusade, some religious thinkers found it difficult to reconcile the defeats suffered by crusaders in the Holy Land with God's will to liberate the region. They resolved their cognitive dissonance with a typical religious explanation: the idea that the God willed liberation of the Holy Land was correct, but the motives of the crusaders attempting to accomplish the task were not pure enough. Only if one could enlist soldiers of Christ who were innocent and pure could the Holy Land ever be regained. This idea found support and soon preachers were recruiting children throughout rural regions of France and Germany. Revivalist village and town meetings were staged where crusading preachers asserted that children, as instruments of God's will, are required to liberate the Holy Land. Some parents believed their arguments and offered their most precious possession, their children, to the cause promoted by the preachers.
 Children soldiers of Christ froze to death ... |
Alps' icy fields Preachers assembled children into marching columns that were growing day by day. The children, led by Nicholas, aged 12, marched toward the Alps they wanted to cross on their way to Italy. The crossing of the Alpine mountain range is not easy - Hannibal's crossing of the Alps is one of history's most celebrated military feats. Crossing from the German side of the Alps to Italy, one must negotiate the Great Saint Bernard Pass, reaching an altitude of over 8,000-ft. Among the icy fields of the Alps, most of the German children soldiers of Christ froze to death. Those who survived boarded a ship at the Italian port of Pisa to sail to the Holy Land where their trace disappears.
 Girls were sold as odalisques into seraglios ... |
Open, Sesame
Meanwhile the phalanxes of French children soldiers of Christ, led by Stephen of
Cloyes, were marching toward Marseille. Upon reaching the Mediterranean Sea,
Stephen of Cloyes raised his arms as he was taught Moses did before God opened
the Red Sea for the passage of the people of Israel from Egypt to the Promised
Land. However the sea did not open. Still, the mission to recapture Christ's
Sepulcher in Jerusalem was not abandoned. Transports by ships were negotiated,
but instead of heading toward the Holy Land, the ship owners directed the
captains of their vessels to sail to the Arab slave markets. There, boys were
sold as slaves and girls were sold as odalisques into seraglios.
To remember Children's Crusades is not popular today, as discussing religion in
any other than a laudatory manner is punishable by ostracism. It was outright
dangerous in times when the secular and church authority colluded. The
Children’s Crusades were remembered in the form of an allegory of a stranger who
leads children away from their parents. The child crusaders were recruited in
1212 from the German provinces of Hesse, Saxony, and Westphalia. Seventy years
later, in 1284, the story of Pied Piper originated at Hamelin, Westphalia. The
Pied Piper appeared when the town was infested with rats, and, for a fee, played
his magic pipe and lured the rats into the Weser River. When the townspeople
reneged on the payment, the Pied Piper played his pipe again. This time it was
the children of the townspeople who followed him. He led them into a place high
in the mountains from where they never returned.
Children's crusades today As of April, 2005, 1,200 (77 percent) of the 1,543 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq were in their teens and twenties. Of these, 289 (18.7 percent) were high school / early college age (18-21). There is affinity between Crusades and the recent wars in the Middle East. In these wars some parents, imbued with patriotism and religion, willingly sent their children to liberate the 'Holy Land' even though they knew that some of them will never return. Some parents, but not all. Families of slain soldiers begin to realize the true causes of their sons and daughters deaths and begin to speak out. The following is the poem A Nation Rocked to Sleep by Carly Sheehan whose brother was killed in Iraq:
Have you ever heard the sound of a mother
screaming for her son?
The torrential rains of a mother's weeping will never be done
They call him a hero, you should be glad that he's one, but
Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?
 On the way to the Holy Land: Images evoked by the ”'modern research” on Children's' Crusades. |
Hagiography of Children's Crusades
During the search of standard theological compendia for the topic of Children's
Crusades, the most often encountered phrase is that it was a ‘tragic episode.’
The reasons given for the Children’s Crusades range from the ‘popular respect
for children as God's instruments,’ to ‘mass hysteria.’ In most school
textbooks, children's crusades are either not mentioned at all or are treated as
a remote, and insignificant event. Recently, the 'modern research' shows that
children's crusades did not happen at all or if they happened, than they were
noble and spiritual events:
Vincent's father wanted to liberate the Holy land more than anything else.
The Holy Land would be free in time - in their hearts they both knew this.
The above quote is from J. E. Christian's (1999) book The Children's Crusade,
published by the Liberty Bell Books and advertised as
"An exciting way to introduce younger readers
to the
Crusades as well as the idea of religious tolerance."
Children in the Bible Computer search of both the New and Old Testaments for the token ‘children’ returned 1,523 verses containing the word ‘children.’ Of these, 664 entries pertain to one of the Bible’s favorite phrases, ‘children of Israel.’ Poignantly, the Bible does not unequivocally extend its protection to all children. Consider the following verses:
Ezekiel 9:6 ‘Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children.’
Deuteronomy 3:6 ‘And we utterly destroyed them, utterly destroyed the men, women, and children.’
Samuel 22:19 ‘And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and suckling.’
The point we want to make is that as the Bible does not provide sufficient
deterrents against waging war, so it does not provide for the sufficient
protection of children during the war either.
Children in the White House
Ideals of the French revolution were expressed by liberté, equalité, fraternité.
Those of the Vichy government as travail, famille, patrie. Barbara Bush
dedicated her memoir (1994) to 'faith, family, and friends.' In the chapter
'Desert Storm' she says that
'I thought of the children in Israel and the children in our country;'
as she contemplated the adverse effect the televised war may have at their
mental health. Note how her religious upbringing influences her judgment. She
repeats the Biblical phrase 'children of Israel' implanted into her mind 664
times every time she read the Bible, followed by 'children in our country,'
expressing concern about their psychological well-being while at the same time
the very existence of Iraqi children was in jeopardy.
 George Bush, his wife and daughters. In the background is the head wound of a soldier ordered by President Bush II to fight in Iraq. |
Mothers of killed soldiers speak Rosemary Dietz says:
My son Brian died not for his country but because of our country’s lack of a coherent and civilized foreign policy. George Bush, you killed my son. You inherited peace and prosperity and created murder, mayhem, and massive debt.
Cindy Sheehan whose son was also killed in Iraq says:
My first born was killed violently for agenda that only benefits a very chosen few in this world. Our country has been overtaken by murderous thugs, gangsters who lust after fortunes and power, never caring that their addictions are at the expense of our loved ones and the blood of innocent people near and far. The US government is ruled by murderous hypocrites, criminals who should be arrested, charged appropriately, and confined behind bars.
Army Times (August 8, 2005) report that Cindy Sheehan wants to tell Bush not to use her son's death as a reason to continue the war, and to ask why (Bush's twin daughters) Jenna and Barbara and the other children of the architects of this disastrous war are not in harm's way, if the cause is so noble." Teresa Whitehurst (Antiwar.com, August 10, 2005) writes:
Do George and Laura Bush ever imagine how it would feel if all they had left of their beloved child was, as Cindy Sheehan has, a few snapshots and an abyss of sorrow in their hearts? Must they suppress their natural compassion in order to convince themselves of their own administration's spin – that it's "worth it" when American kids die far away from home for reasons that have consistently turned out to be false? Do the Bushes feel the earth tremble beneath their feet at the mere thought that thousands of parents of slain soldiers are beginning to ask questions, to see the folly for which their children died…to find their voice?
 |
Madonna "The
current administration is a bigger threat to our safety than terrorism. The
future I wish for my children is at stake. Our greatest risk is not terrorism
and it’s not Iraq or the ‘Axis of Evil.’ Our greatest risk is a lack of
leadership, a lack of honesty and a complete lack of consciousness.”
Hollywood Blacklist On May
22, 2003, Hollywood Investigator reprinted names of the blacklisted actors
(shortened):
 Harry Belafonte Colin Powell is an Uncle Tom. |
Martin Sheen "George W Bush is a moron."
Jessica Lange "I despise him."
Sean Penn "(Bush) seems to be willing to sacrifice the children of the world.”
Susan Sarandon "We stand a chance of getting a president who has probably killed more people before he gets into office than any president in the history of the United States."
Woody Harrelson "This is a racist and imperialist war."
John Cusak "The war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration."
Robert Altman "This present government in America I just find disgusting."
George Clooney "Bush is a warmonger."
Barbara Streisand "How could such a destructive man be so popular with the American people?"
Danny Glover condemned President Bush and "his administration of liars and murderers."
Tim Robbins "we have seen our democracy compromised by fear and hatred."
Jennifer, Julia, and others
 Jennifer Aniston Bush is a fucking idiot. |
 Julia Roberts The man's embarrassing. |
Robin Williams "He's like 'We have to get rid of dictators,' but he's pretty
much one himself."
Dustin Hoffman "I believe the administration has taken the events of 9/11 and has manipulated the grief of the country."
Richard Gere "Bush's plans for war are a bizarre bad dream."
Rosario Dawson "I'm frightened by the patriotic mood sweeping the United States."
Sandra Bernhard "The real terrorist threats are George W. Bush and his band of brown-shirted thugs."
David Duchovny, Chevy Chase, F. Murray Abraham, Melissa Gilbert, Elliott Gould, Ed Asner, Helen Hunt, Anjelica Huston, Marsha Mason, Loretta Swit, Martin Scorsese, Madonna, Robert Redford, Renee Zellweger, and others.
Obscurantism of the Media
 Keith Olbermann |
With respect to concerns about our media, the comments by Keith Olbermann (2007, Virginia Tech Shootings: Have We Suppressed Grief About Iraq? TV Newsletter, April 18) are not without relevance:
It is an overwhelming tragedy, over 30 young Americans killed violently (...) And yet, the same number of young Americans of approximately the same age have died in Iraq in the last 10 days. Clearly, while one make take issue with the comparison, one may not ignored the similarities.
Moreover, in a more practical sense, the deaths in Iraq could have been much more readily prevented, and the desire much more easily fulfilled to protect the more potential victims there. No one questions the nation's grief about Virginia Tech -- but have we suppressed our grief about Iraq?
It seems fair to ask the question: If the violent deaths in Virginia send a nation into shock and expressions of concern and anxiety, why isn't a continuous flow of American blood in Iraq generating a similar reaction?
References