What colour week is this?

What colour will be assigned to this eventful week?

Black for grief, despair and death?

Red for anger, heartache and impatience?

Green for discord?

UNIFIL troops

I have been reflecting on previous peacekeeping efforts in The Lebanon e.g. by UNIFIL soldiers.

Sometimes I worry about the UN forces, given their impotence, for example in Rwanda and Bosnia.

At the time of the recent hostilities, I came across the Irish Lebanon War Veterans Organisation — I hadn’t realised quite how many Irish peacekeepers (47) died in “The Leb”, in the service of peace during what they refer to as “the endless war of Lebanon”.

Visiting their web site gives you an idea of how much they loved the Lebanon and its peoples, particularly the citizens of Tibnin with whom they built .

Earlier this month about 150 Irish troops were deployed to the Lebanon — let's hope with their role clearly defined, properly equipped for it. And that their intervention is not endlessly required.

"They didn't give peace a chance..."

Sectarianism has everything to answer for.

How do these tit for tat cycles benefit anyone, except the bullies?

However — I have come across what I feel is a strong case for Buddhism.

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” BUDDHA 4th Century BC

Peace Potion 2

Don't ask questions. Question the answers.
[Colman McCarthy, Career Pacifist and volunteer teacher]

Read the story here.

Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief & Others

I’m aware that the details of the Jessica Lynch rescue are contentious but it came to mind again yesterday and, aware that those who rescued her had had some inside help, I googled to see what the current take on that story is. Some of the language of current commentary contains phrases like “official account” and words like claims and allegedly, so it is difficult for a non-American to sift out and suss.

The young Iraqi lawyer, Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief, who provided details of her location, was given asylum in the United States, together with his family in April 2003. At some point prior to the event, while taking information to her rescuers, he received a shrapnel injury which permanently damaged his vision. Although physically safe, in an undisclosed location in the US, and with his immediate family, he has suffered because of his role in her rescue in that he now has a physical handicap, and is living with the accompanying stress of a life in exile.

I’ve read neither al-Rehaief’s autobiography, Because Each Life Is Precious, not Lynch’s I’m a Soldier too.

Copious use of Google’s link command, over the past hour, has left me little wiser.

It does seem clear also (from the ‘kindness to enemies’ angle) that Private Lynch’s medical treatment and the nursing care from staff at the no doubt under-resourced hospital from which she was rescued, was as good as they could provide.

A soldier's view

Fortunate son wrote (5 October)

I was told on several occasions by Afghan leaders that their personal relationships with me positively influenced their perceptions of Americans and I know that my team and I influenced hundreds if not thousands of young Afghans, leaving lasting, positive impressions of Americans as a kind, caring and giving, yet determined people who want nothing more than for them to inherit a free and open society where they will have opportunities not available to their fathers; where ignorance does not dominate their lives.

and more recently (10 October)

We have plenty "anti-War" types who are willing to demonstrate once war becomes a fait accompli, but we don't have near enough "pro-Peace" types willing to work for a more just and equitable world and actually prevent the conditions of war before they begin. As long as the average American's preoccupations are the price of gas; as long as we remain willfully ignorant of the world around us; as long as we're content to be the "Shining Gated Community on the Hill", it would seem to me that our fate will be to settle for the ensuing partisan blame game for the last crisis while waiting for the next Pearl Harbor or 9/11 in order to get people to pay attention to the miserable conditions of their fellow man and stop tolerating the existence of those regimes that benefit from their misery and ignorance.

As it stands, the score is still 0-0, the newspapers have already printed the headlines declaring our humiliating loss, our broadcasters are sending the opposing side our playbook, sixty percent of our spectators (most were "fans" only before kickoff) have headed for the parking lot, our coaches are down to fielding only seven players and we're still in the first minute of the game.

It's not going to be easy to nurse the ills of this wounded planet. It's going to require billions rather than millions to consider the possibility that a massive re-think may be required.

'Final' impressions (April 2003!)

In April 2003, as opposition to the 'occupying forces' grew, the BBC reporters who had covered the invasion, recorded ‘final impressions’ (sic) of the war.

Ryan Dilley wrote:

“I saw callous and calculated acts of destruction perpetrated by both sides, but balanced by acts of great generosity and kindness.”

I have seen a boy enraged to the point of throwing stones because he was denied a chocolate bar, while another youth — shot through the middle and dying — behaved with utter composure, politeness and dignity.

I have seen a palace the splendour of which was made all the more sickening by the poverty, filth and want in the city beyond its gates. I have seen people with great intelligence and potential, trapped in a situation surely created by fools.

What I am really not sure about is whether I have seen a liberation or an invasion.”