| If we lined up all the Christian Generals and asked them: “Even though Thou shall not kill is one of Ten Commandments held sacred by your religion, would you push the nuclear button upon command of The Commander in Chief?”
Scott Ritter, controversial journalist, recently stated they unequivocally would follow the order. This made me shudder—not in fear but disgust. Having been a born-again Christian, I was taught that killing another is tantamount to usurping God’s power. I also know that a nuclear device would kill more than one, whether intentionally or accidentally unleashed.
To even the score of approximately four million displaced, imprisoned, injured or dead Iraqi people, we’ve been barely scathed in comparison. Yet the results of U.S. actions are approaching the numbers of The Holocaust we've continually grieved for more than 60 years. More likely, according to Ritter, unleashing the nuclear genie will cost us at least one major city in the U.S., and probably perpetual escalation from there he further warned.
So pick a city. Any major city. Close your eyes, do the after-math, and see what the scoreboard will look like. Now open your eyes and answer these questions: Do you have children there? Parents? Relatives? Friends? Alumni? Childhood memories? Family history? Property interests? Corporations who serve your needs? Places you hoped to visit?
We recently witnessed the devastation of national jewel New Orleans and many of her neighbors, realizing that people, commerce, and historical treasures can disappear in a blast. This blast was caused by wind-driven elements of nature which, however devastating, left some structures and humans in its wake. It appears God was more merciful than the Genie will be.
Isn’t it time we not only open our eyes, but wake up and begin protesting with every breath our breath’s potential and probable annihilation? Even if inadvertently—can we accept the probable extinction of all life forms?
Me thinks the generals would protest too loudly at the proposed question and use every available tactic to avoid, withhold, or conditionalize their answers, however simple saying yes or no can be. If they say no, they betray their service oath and therefore the brotherhood; if they say yes they betray the teachings and commandment of their God. I dare say it would be the hardest rocks they were ever between, but as their leader made clear, “Money trumps peace….”
Unfortunately, the U.S. cannot even bow out gracefully in Iraq and other militant engagements, because we’re married to many Private Military Corporations’ contracts insuring U.S. conquests on foreign soil. To default on these written agreements would not bode well with global PMC goals. It would make more sense if one deliberately tried to piss off the international mafia network, including the drug lords in Afghanistan.
To get out, many feel it would be a betrayal of the dead who gave their lives for what they deemed crucial causes—perhaps not their cause, but a cause. The men and now women who thought patriotism their duty have not died in vain. They should be honored as sacrificial lambs and immortalized as victims of deceit, just as all who died at their hands should also be. Surely, there must be a less painful way for everyone to co-exist, even if peace never comes.
And so we are trapped, just like the occupied are trapped, at the whims and tugs of leaders, generals, armies, weapons, threats, and all their accompanying bad or wet dreams. It doesn’t have to be this way. The alarm is going off. No more snooze buttons. It’s time to rise and shine! It’s time to claim your right to say you want to live as long as you can. It’s time to protect your children’s right to live as long as they can. It’s time to protect the rights of others to life by putting into practice the golden rule, which most religions teach and even children can understand.
My body has never birthed a child, but the two adopted children I’ve reared are more precious to me than my own life. I want them to be able to grow old, simply because of the wisdom maturity brings with it. I will gladly be a prisoner, a slave, a robot, or whatever as payment for their freedom from the tyranny of habitual “kill or be killed” living. My guess is that women everywhere want the same for their children.
Killing also usurps universal energy in the greater context of consciousness, regardless of one’s earthly allegiances. By recently renouncing my faith in Christians, their teachings, their savior, their God, I’m beginning to feel what true freedom is all about. When the religious filters are removed from the equation, “equal” becomes the only place from whence true communication can come. Political talks and religious ploys are a farce, but they do allow more time for the beneficiaries to plot, implement, and profit from the emotional—if not shelled—wasteland they leave behind.
So are we just going to hunker in our bungalow bunkers until we see a blinding flash of light? Believe me, your locked doors, burglar bars, alarm systems, and .359 Mags won’t be enough. We won’t even have time to wish we’d done things differently. We won’t have time to gather our children. We won’t have time to figure out what happened. We won’t have time to wonder what hit us—was it Jesus returning, a wayward meteor, a mega-volcanic eruption, a nuclear blast? We’ll never know. Sadder yet, perhaps humanity will never recover from The Light that could turn us all into crispy critters instead of the critical mass we must become to end this insanity.
Will all the past 4,000 years’ arguing, fighting, and killing for causes and conquests have been worth inheriting a worldwide landscape of worthless real estate where life can no longer be sustained? (My, we’ve come a long way haven’t we?) If we lined up as many mothers as generals and asked them the nuclear button question, what would they say? Would their say hold any sway? Would any of them push the button? Which side would claim responsibility—Christian, Jew, Muslim? I don’t know, I’m just asking.
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