The Journey

Steve & Shirley

I must admit that on the Syria business I have gone back and forth between my beliefs about what we should do. Perhaps you are in the same situation. We have been through this with Iraq when the intelligence told us they had weapons of mass destruction – even showed us the trucks carrying around these mobile labs. Our Secretary of State, Colin Powell – for whom I have the utmost respect – went to the UN and made a convincing case using flawed, even contrived intelligence. We went to war and there were some pretty nasty consequences from which Iraq has yet to recover.

I agree with most people, the use of gas is evil.

But here is my question: knowing how evil Al-Qaeda is and that there are no depths it will not go to carry out its Jihad, are we sure – I mean absolutely sure that it was the Syrian government that used the gas or was it someone else seeking to get us to act militarily after that red line was crossed? It could have been either one of these – or both.

My next question is what will be the result of our missile strikes? Will we really degrade the government’s ability to wage war or use gas on its own people… Or will we have succeeded in putting Al-Qaeda into a more powerful position in Syria – even to the point of making it easier to take over the government entirely?

The behaviors and the people we are talking about are the same behaviors and people found in many Old Testament stories. Frankly, they haven’t changed all that much. My military mind would say let go over there and take care of business in quick order. My logical mind would say hey, let’s think this thing ALL the way through – passed the strikes and include what fall out make take place after there is a change – who will be in charge and can we deal with them?

My spiritual being says theses are brothers and sisters who need our help and full understanding. There must be a way we can move the world (in all its fractured parts) can move toward peace.

I recorded “Miss congeniality” the other night. This FBI agent hated beauty pageants, especially the part where every contestant says she wants world peace. In the end isn’t that what the world really longs to celebrate… A world where all people will feel safe and know that all others will come to their aid when needed. That is the world I pray for every day.

Dear Lord, Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. Amen.

Grace and Peace

Steve

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