The One-Sided Religious War

Although the current war has been labeled as the War for Freedom, that title is really misleading, as well as being extremely nebulous. The war, we are told, is a war to prevent the Islamic world from taking over our so-called democracy. In actuality, the war is a religious war on both sides. We have a president who has unwavering religious beliefs, and he has made very good use of the Christian right as his base from which to garner support. In spite of the fact that his speeches are heavily laced with mention of God and Christ, he has avoided using those words as motivation – only freedom.

Religious belief varies to a great degree in this country, from sect to sect, and from one individual to another. The same is probably true around the world, although there are countries in which it is not wise to let individual belief be known. Try to envision, therefore, how you as an individual would react if another nation, especially a nation with a religious motive were to invade.

Would you rise up as an individual to protect your country? Many Americans are heavily armed, but mostly with fairly unmilitary arms, and mostly to kill other Americans for one reason or another. But would that stop you from coming to the defense of your country? If you were a devout Christian, would you be willing to give your life for Christ? If you were an atheist, but also an American, would that make you any less likely to die for your country? And just what labels do you think the oncoming hordes would use to describe us? Terrorists? Insurgents? Extremists? Do you think they would know whether each and every one of us was an evil adversary? Do you think they might believe that some of us could simply be trying to protect our families, our homeland, and our way of life with whatever we had at hand?

Do you suppose that there are any people like those I’ve just described in Iraq or Afghanistan?