Two Terrifying Recent Texts From Gaza City

My friend J. Daryl Byler, a Washington, DC. based attorney who spent years in the Middle East, just received the following texts from a Palestinian friend. Wikipedia photo

4/21/2025

I am Amjad, a Palestinian from Gaza living in the shadow of a horrendous war, a war that has lasted 19 months. This war has already killed my father, brother and sister, and wounded my wife and our two sons. 

I have had to run with them from place to place to try to protect and feed them. We have had to flee 17 times during this war, from home to home, from school to school, from tent to tent. During the ceasefire, we returned to our home in Gaza City, where we have been living in the ruins of our destroyed home.  

On March 2nd, the Israelis began a total siege of Gaza, closing the border crossings to all humanitarian aid and commercial trade, blocking all food, water, fuel, electricity and other supplies from entering Gaza. Then on March 16, the Israelis ended the ceasefire with Hamas, resumed military attacks against all of Gaza. Each day our life has become more difficult. 

As for food, everything is very, very expensive. Flour is no longer available in the market and the black market is extremely expensive. Even vegetables are very expensive. If the border crossing is not opened In a few days, we will completely run out of food.  During the siege my children are becoming malnourished.  

My wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl the day before the Israelis ended the ceasefire, and a few days ago, the Israelis bombed the last hospital in Gaza City.  Now my wife and my new daughter need medical and nutritional assistance that is no longer available, and I am powerless to help them.

My brother, the Israelis are bombing everywhere. There is no fighting with Hamas, but the Israelis are bombing everywhere, including the hospitals which have now all been destroyed. If anyone is injured, there are no medical equipment or supplies to deal with the wounds, so their arm or leg must be amputated to save their lives. 

We are all under constant threat and fear.  I worry that I will have a heart attack just from the anxiety.  My children are terrified and wet themselves when the bombing gets close. They are afraid to sleep at night. We all sleep together, and when the bombing is too close to one side of the house, I gather them all up and carry them to the other side of our destroyed house. 

Gaza is now unlivable.  If the world powers cannot break the siege of food and water, and stop the Israeli genocide in Gaza, then they have a responsibility to get the people of Gaza get out so that we can receive the medical and nutritional assistance that we need.  We have learned that the Red Cross and the World Health Organization have helped some Gazans leave for medical assistance.  

My wife and two sons are all suffering from shrapnel wounds from an Israeli tank shell that hit the school room in which we were sheltering in November 2023, and now, we are all now malnourished because of the 36 day siege.  Please stop this war and end the occupation, but if you cannot, at least help my family and all Gazan people to leave and find safety.

4/22/2025

Yesterday there was a huge explosion that shook the whole area.  The children were terrified, started screaming and ran to hid in my arms as the shrapnel fell on our house. The situation is terrifying. I can’t breathe. . .  I discovered that the World Health Organization will try to get my family out of Gaza. I hope to escape death in Gaza.

And now they are bombing again!!  Huge bombing.

Let Nations Without War Crimes Cast The First Stones

"War crimes" are an all too common feature of all wars, including the saturation bombing of largely civilian sites by British and American planes  in Dresden, Germany in 1945.

Millions the world over are expressing shock and outrage over Russia's brutal and indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Ukraine, justifiably charging Putin with "war crimes."

I totally agree, but have also always believed that war itself is a crime, and that to assign the "crime" label to only certain acts of killing people, armed or otherwise, is morally flawed and hypocritical, to say the least.

The United Nations considers the following as war crimes, according to Wikipedia:

1. Intentional murder of innocent people;

2. Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;

3. Willfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health;

4. Compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of hostile power;

5. Use by children under the age of sixteen years into armed forces or groups or using them to participate actively in hostilities;

6. Intentionally directing attack against the civilian population as not taking direct part in hostilities;

7. Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;

8. Destroying or seizing the property of an adversary unless demanded by necessities of the conflict;

9. Using poison or poisoned weapons;

10. Intentionally directing attack against building dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals as long as it's not used as military infrastructure;

11. Willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial;

12. Attacking or bombarding towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which are not military infrastructure;

13. Unlawful deportation, transfer, or unlawful confinement;

14. Taking of hostages.

15. Intentional assault with the knowledge that such an assault would result in loss of life or casualty to civilians or damage to civilian objects or extensive, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment that would be clearly excessive.

This last point (15), in my opinion, pretty much describes any modern war launched anywhere. All wars now result in more civilian casualties than armed ones. Having said that, conscripted soldiers, as the sons and daughters of beloved families and communities, represent an equally tragic and, in my mind indefensible, loss of life. All lives do really matter.

In what could be considered an example of "Victor's Justice," we should note that no charges were placed in the case of Allied and U.S. air raids that caused some 25,000 casualties in Dresden, Germany alone. Similar casualties were inflicted in other German cities, and the US has the distinction of having bombed the largest number of civilians ever in a single air raid in Tokyo, Japan near the end of WWII.

Then there was the even more lethal use of nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.

May God save us from ever having to reap what we have sown.

Some 80,000 people were instantly killed or fatally wounded in the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, and over 100,000 died afterwards from the effects of the first atomic bomb ever detonated.  

Both Sides Use Videos To Glorify Killing

F-22 fighters delivering death, destruction and dismemberment

In my 9/13 post I expressed my outrage over videos that show ISIS beheadings, acts of terror no doubt applauded by their bloodthirsty supporters. I've recently also seen numerous videos that show the effects of air strikes on ISIS targets, which I'm sure are also applauded by US citizens eager for revenge.

Sadly, we have come to accept drone, rocket and other air strikes as antiseptic and routine, the equivalent of just another hit in a video game. Civilian casualties are seen as “collateral damage”, and enemy fighters we kill are dehumanized, not seen as equally precious to God and to their civilian families.

When Fascist planes dropped bombs resulting in the deaths of large numbers of noncombatants in the 1937 Spanish Civil War, there was a worldwide outcry. Pablo Picasso did his famous painting “Guernica” in protest, and governments around the world denounced the tactic as an act of terrorism.

As late as September 1, 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt decried the "inhuman barbarism" of such bombings which "sickened the hearts of every civilized man and woman," and "profoundly shocked the conscience of humanity".

But in a very short period of time Hitler’s strategy won the day, and Allied forces in World War II engaged in wholesale saturation bombings of German populations. Soon thereafter President Truman gave orders to completely obliterate two Japanese cities with atomic bombs.

In February, 2003, at the 58th anniversary of the fire bombing of Dresden, German survivors of that 1945 firestorm joined with survivors of the bombing of Guernica to issue the following appeal:

“As our television sets show bombers preparing for war against Iraq, we survivors of Guernica and Dresden recall our own helplessness and horror when we were flung into the inferno of bombing—we saw people killed. Suffocated. Crushed. Incinerated. Mothers trying to protect their children with only their bodies. Old people with no strength left to flee from the flames. These pictures are still alive in our memory, and our accounts capture indelibly what we went through.


“For decades we—and survivors from many other nations—have been scarred by the horror, loss and injuries we experienced in the wars of the 20th century. Today we see that the beginnings of the 21st century are also marked by suffering and destruction. On behalf of all the victims of war throughout the world we express our sympathy and solidarity with all those affected by the terror of September 11 in the USA and the war in Afghanistan.


“But is that very suffering now also to be inflicted upon the people of Iraq? Must thousands more die in a rain of bombs, must cities and villages be destroyed and cultural treasures obliterated?”

Their voices went unheeded, and now we are again resorting to extreme “shock and awe” tactics in order to degrade and destroy terrorists we ourselves have helped create.

While civilians are not being deliberately targeted in our fight against ISIS, President Obama is using the same violent war tactics as his predecessors. In the words of anti-war activist David Swanson, “He can get away with some abuses and worse and be forgiven because he engages in wars more eloquently and reluctantly. But the people who die in the wars are just as dead...”

Following the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center the U.S. experienced an outpouring of sympathy and support from all over the world, including many of the Muslim nations with whom we are now in conflict. We could have resorted to waging peace on a massive scale, working to make sure that perpetrators of 911 kinds of violence were degraded and disenfranchised.

Instead we chose revenge. And now we are reaping the brutal consequences.

A July, 2002, "Open Letter to President Bush"

source

Members of our house church congregation sent the following to the Daily News Record 14 years ago, prior to the U.S. launching a six-week "shock and awe" bombing campaign in Iraq that began March 20, 2003, and marked the start of an unending state of war in the region.

Dear President Bush,

We are deeply concerned about your reported plans to carry out a bombing campaign against Iraq. While we certainly cannot support Saddam Hussein's policies, neither can we condone the use of destructive bombing raids.

Your unilateral use of the blunt instrument of war in violation of international law would further hinder peace efforts in the region and would result in terrible suffering and loss of human life. In addition it would give our Muslim neighbors even more reason to reject the faith that you, Mr. President, and many others of us profess, a faith that commands us to do good to our enemies rather than to bomb or starve them into submission

As adherents of that faith we oppose all war, but are especially appalled by the acceptance of ever more terrifying means of destruction in modern warfare.

source

After the first aerial bombings of the Spanish town of Guernica, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said that "the United States consistently taking the lead in urging that this inhumane practice be prohibited".

We pray that you, Mr. President, would do the same.

Members of Family of Hope House Church

December 7, 1941 And December 3, 2020: Two Dates That Should Live In Infamy

Today is the 79th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, resulting in the deaths of 2403 Americans. 

Last week, on December 3, a record number of 2804 Americans lost their lives due to Covid-19, and we have been experiencing losses at nearly the rate of a Pearl Harbor every day since.

Here are some other sobering comparisons:

The September 11, 2001, bombing of the World Trade Center resulted in 2977 casualties.

The Oklahoma City bombing claimed the lives of 168 people.

In 2019 an average of 100 people per day died as a result of highway accidents in the US.

The average number of American service members who died each day during 1968, at the height of the Vietnam conflict, was 46.

Meanwhile, there are around 2300 abortions performed in the US daily, the majority of which are of embryos in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Interesting Responses to My Recent Piece on Military Waste

  
Picasso’s famous painting depicting the horror of the first bombing of civilians by war planes in Guernica, Spain, during the 1937 Spanish Civil War.

My May 5 post on “Welfare Waste versus Warfare Waste” generated a number of critical comments on DNRonline after it was published in the May 15 Daily News-Record as an an op-ed piece, and also from some readers of the Mennonite World Review blog “Our World Together” where it was posted last week.

Here are some interesting responses from readers of the latter:

“The basic mission of the AMARG facility in Tuscon is to reclaim used aircraft and parts rather than paying contractors to produce new ones. According to the Davis-Monthan Air Force base web page, AMARG saves taxpayers $11 for every $1 invested in the facility.
“I strongly agree with your overall premise, but the fact that you choose one of the most cost-effective facilities in the entire US military system as evidence of your point severely weakens your credibility. If you are writing an article on waste, I question the wisdom of making an anecdote out of what is essentially an effective recycling facility.”           - jon                            

“Harvey- Explain to me how the money spent on defense products is 'wasted' and is 'gone forever' while welfare spending 'circulates in the economy'. I do not necessarily disagree with your overall position that we have too high a defense budget, but I'd like to hear the rationale for those baseless economic arguments. All the men and women who built those aircraft, not to mention the parts supplier that maintained them, the companies that fueled them etc. would likely disagree with you.
“Add the fact that our overall defense budget is roughly $600-800 billion of a $3 trillion budget (20 - 25%) and I think this argument gets long in the tooth fairly quickly. Much emotion, little logic, I think."           - bjw

Here are some of my own further reflections:

Thanks for your responses.

When it comes to economics, I'm totally not an expert, but it does seems obvious that money spent on a fighter plane doesn't help the economy in the way that investing in, say, a Boeing 707 that transports goods and people multiple times a day for a productive lifetime, and which can then still be used for spare parts after its retirement.

The initial expenditure of billions of dollars on the 4000 Air Force planes in Tucson did of course add stimulus to the economy, as would investing in building 4000 Egyptian style pyramids. And some of the "waste" of building multiple pyramids could be recouped by selling some of the surplus bricks to interested tourists and other would-be pyramid builders. But compare that to investing in 4000 small businesses and other infrastructure that could create a thriving city of economic activity rather than ending up in the kind of "graveyard" we have in Arizona, one that appeared to be void of any activity at all on the day we saw it.

Meanwhile, none of us is raising the moral question of whether aircraft should be ever be used to rain death on innocent people and create havoc and destruction from the air, especially through saturation bombing of cities or villages or the napalming of God's creation, as these Vietnam era planes were capable of doing with great efficiency.

The Wright brothers and other early pioneers in flight certainly didn't have such military use in mind, and when airplanes were first used in the bombing of Guernica in the Spanish Civil War, there was worldwide outrage over the kind of terror that created (note Picasso's painting commissioned to commemorate that tragedy).

Who would have thought that we would now, just 75 years later, take that kind of holocaust for granted as a normal part of "defense"?

A Holocaust Of Horror

Hiroshima bombing aftermath

"I have set before you life and death, therefore choose life, that you and your children may live."

- Deuteronomy 30:19

Yesterday marked the 70th anniversary of the use of the first atomic weapon, dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.

This deadly bomb resulted in the immediate killing of some 70,000 men, women and children, to be followed by an equal number experiencing terrible deaths from burns and radiation poisoning in the days immediately following. The estimated deaths from later victims of cancer raised the total losses to some 300,000.

Nagasaki suffered similar casualties in its bombing three days later.

When aerial bombing of civilian targets with conventional weapons were first carried out during the Spanish Civil War less than a decade earlier, the world was horrified. But with multiple saturation bombings of cities during the Second World War, we became numb to news of massive civilian holocausts of this kind.

In that sense, Hitler won. We became like the worst of him, condoning the use of whatever inhumane means necessary to achieve military ends.

Since the end of the Cold War and the implementation of the START treaty, we have largely forgotten the threat that still hangs over us, especially if nuclear weapons were to ever get into the hands of groups or nations bent on our destruction. We have also forgotten that the world still has stockpiles of weapons that could destroy our planet and all life on it several times over.

May God help us remember, and to beat our terrible swords into plowshares before it is too late.

Here's a link to the August 31, 1946 New Yorker article that detailed the horror of Hiroshima.

Raqqa, Syria: Liberation Through Obliteration

How is this kind of massive bombing not an act of terror and genocide?

To most western observers, finally freeing Raqqa from ISIS control is unmitigated good news, a victory worthy of great celebration.

But at what cost? And who pays?

According to an AP report in today's paper, 80% of this once prosperous city along the Euphrates (about the size of Richmond) is no longer habitable. Hundreds of civilians have been killed or maimed for life by massive bombing and drone strikes that have decimated the population and rendered those who survived homeless and with little hope for their future.

So what constitutes a military success? Have we completely lost our moral bearings and our credibility as a nation that supports human rights for all, including the inherent right to life itself? In the interest of achieving victory at any price, do we justify any and every means of achieving it? A nuclear strike? Chemical warfare?

It's just not possible, in my mind, to make any meaningful moral distinction between the terrible atrocities committed by ISIS and the equally unthinkable terror caused by massive bombing raids.

According to today's article, "Associated Press drone footage taken Thursday showed bombed-out shells of buildings and heaps of concrete slabs piled on streets littered with destroyed cars. Entire neighborhoods were turned to rubble, with no sign of civilian life--testimony to the thousands of bombs dropped on the city mainly by U.S. warplanes."

Someday history will judge us for condoning this form of holocaust. 

May God have mercy on us all. 

There Were 60 Times More US Bomb Strikes Than Terrorist Attacks Last Year

2015 US airstrike, location unknown

2015 Bagdad Hotel terrorist bombing

All of us are sickened by reports of suicide bombings and other acts of senseless terror around the world, a total of 389 in 2015 alone. Most of the untold number of victims are civilians.

What gets less media attention is the number of US bomb, drone and missile strikes in the Middle East and neighboring regions each year, an estimated total of 23,144 in 2015, or nearly sixty times the number of terrorist attacks. While our air strikes are aimed at killing combatants, in a war without conventional battlefields the civilian toll from even the most carefully targeted air raids far exceeds that of the more primitive suicide and car bombing attacks.

Regrettably, the human suffering and destruction that results is the same.

Somewhere we have gotten the idea that violence launched from the ground is more deadly and more evil than violence from the air. But bombs are bombs, whether highly sophisticated or very primitive delivery systems are employed to launch them.

It seems especially ironic that a Nobel Peace Prize winning President should be the commander-in-chief authorizing most of this carnage, which in turn is creating ever more vicious and unconscionable counter-attacks.

Ultimately, violence will never be stopped by violence. We should have learned that by now.

U.S. Airstrikes: "Proportionate and Necessary?"

President Biden: "The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world.”

According to an Associated Press report, US forces carried out 85 airstrikes in Yemen today after attacking sites in Iraq and Syria yesterday in response to a drone attack that killed three US soldiers. 

Is this kind of retaliation really "proportionate and necessary?" The attack on our military base this week, in protest of our support of Israel's revenge strikes against Gazan citizens, killed three U.S. troops. U.S.counterstrikes have claimed the lives of at least 40, plus doing an untold amount of additional "collateral damage."

This brings up the question of whether the lives and property of US citizens have infinitely greater value than those of other nationalities, thus justifying our dropping megatons of explosives as a form of "defense."

Do starving refugees and bombing victims everywhere not have equal value? Do people suffering and dying as a result of millions of our taxpayer dollars spent in inflicting harm not equally deserve our mercy and compassion?

And if we really don't want to escalate conflict in the Middle East, why are we in fact escalating it by engaging in massive bombing campaigns?

Chris Hedges, an ordained Presbyterian minister and Pulitzer-prize-winning reporter, writes in his book, The Greatest Evil is War:

"In an instant, industrial warfare can kill dozens, even hundreds of people, who never see their attackers. The power of these industrial weapons is indiscriminate and staggering. They can take down apartment blocks in seconds, burying and crushing everyone inside. They can demolish villages and send tanks, planes, and ships up in fiery blasts. The wounds, for those who survive, leave terrible burns, blindness, amputation, and life­long pain and trauma."

Employing ever more evil means of this kind is far more likely to set off an unimaginably horrific World War III than to bring about any lasting peace.

Guest Post: The Untold Nagasaki Story 8/9/45

There are an unimaginable number of untold stories associated with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 78 years ago.  

I post the following with the kind permission of Walt Zlotow of the West Suburban Peace Coalition of Glen Ellyn, Illinois:

Why no Hollywood movie on Nagasaki Atomic Bombing?

In the 1952 movie ‘Above and Beyond’, movie idol Robert Taylor played handsome Col. Paul Tibbetts, straight out of Central Casting, who piloted Enola Gay to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima 78 years ago today. We all grew up in awe of Tibbetts, Enola Gay and the perfect mission which incinerated Hiroshima from the first A Bomb dropped in anger. My awe eventually turned to revulsion over a horrendous war crime.

But who piloted what plane that dropped the second A Bomb on Nagasaki just 3 days later? The American Story has largely erased the saga of the Nagasaki mission for good reason. It was a colossal screw up that almost got the pilot court martialed; indeed, nearly detonated Fat Man over the Pacific en route.

Trouble began early on. Paul Tibbetts, fresh from his Hiroshima success, picked his friend Charles Sweeney to pilot the drop plane ‘Bockscar’ instead of its regular pilot Fred Bock. Sweeney was unfamiliar with both combat and the plane. Preparing for takeoff, Sweeney was unable to operate the reserve tank containing 640 gallons of fuel needed to get Bockscar safely back to its Tinian takeoff point. Bock may have had the familiarity with the plane to accomplish that. Regulations required the mission be scrapped so Sweeney and crew exited Bockscar. But Tibbetts overruled them and the mission was on with insufficient fuel.

Three hours in, worse trouble. Fat Man’s red detonation lights began blinking wildly. Chief weaponeer Dick Ashworth frantically searched the blueprints and realized 2 switches had been reversed in the pre flight assembly. Solving that problem, everyone relaxed till Bockscar failed to rendezvous with the second of two back up planes, one for photography and one for instruments. The instrument plane, The Big Stink, was 9,000 feet above Bockscar. 

Instead of pushing on to original target Kokura, Sweeney wasted 45 minutes of precious fuel trying to link up. Big Stink pilot Hoppy Hopkins broke radio silence frantically calling Tinian asking “Is Bockscar down?” Mission officials only heard “Bockscar Down” and freaked out believing Bockscar, Fat Man and the 13 member crew were in Davy Jones Locker.

Ashford was frantic that all was lost. As tension mounted between the weaponeer and the pilot, he finally persuaded Sweeney to proceed to primary target Kokura. But a smokescreen put up by Japanese defenders responding to the Hiroshima attack caused Sweeney to go around for a second and third bomb run, wasting more fuel.

More trouble. Flack and approaching Japanese Zeros forced Sweeney to abandon Kokura to flee 100 miles to alternate target Nagasaki.

The drop made, Sweeney made a desperate dive to avoid the mushroom cloud that nearly engulfed them. But his previous delays made the return trip to Tinian impossible. Low on fuel, Sweeney began a treacherous 450 mile flight on dwindling fuel for Okinawa. All aboard Bockscar prepared to ditch. Approaching the Okinawa airfield unable to radio the tower of their emergency, Bockscar had to drop into a forced landing amid numerous other flights without control tower clearance. Bockscar bounced 25 feet in the air landing at 30 MPH over the maximum landing speed, nearly colliding with a row of fuel laden B-24’s. One engine quit on the approach and another upon touchdown. Thinking Bockscar was lost, airport personnel inquired who this strange plane was that descended out of the sky unannounced. ‘We just dropped an atomic bomb’ was the reply.

There were no celebrations for the crew of Bockscar. Officials considered a courts martial for Sweeney for his life and mission threatening delays but considered the embarrassment it would cause and decided against. Why mar the mission-perfect first nuking of civilians by Paul Tibbetts and Enola Gay? 

While we’ll never get a Hollywood treatment of the Bockscar A Bomb mission, it would be a lot more exciting than ‘Above and Beyond’. An appropriate title? ‘Nearly Down and Out Over Nagasaki’.

Walt Zlotow

West Suburban Peace Coalition

Glen Ellyn IL 

When Manchester Was Bombed To Rubble

Manchester was devastated by German air raids in WWII

The whole world mourned the tragic loss of life in a suicide bombing at a concert in Manchester, England, this past week, but that was far from the first, or the worst, of what that city has endured.

Some 77 years earlier, Manchester suffered multiple devastating attacks by Nazi war planes that killed nearly 700 people and injured over 2000 in two nights of raids alone, just before Christmas of 1940, according to an article in Wikipedia: "On the night of 22/23 December, 270 aircraft dropped 272 tons of high explosive and 1,032 incendiary bombs; on the second night, 171 aircraft dropped another 195 tons of high explosive and 893 incendiaries."

Targeted air raids, new in those days, have become the terror tactics of choice for combatants that can afford them. Other fighters may deliver their bombs by more primitive means, often in retaliation for devastating air raids that have destroyed their people, .

But the horror and the devastation inflicted are the same, no matter how today's powerful explosives are delivered or what the motives are behind their use. All bombing is unbelievably barbaric and terrifying.

When it comes to perpetrating this kind of terror, there is more than enough guilt to go around, but the US, the only nation in history to unleash nuclear weapons, has become known as the chief offender.

Just this past week the Independent published a report in which the Pentagon acknowledges that 105 civilians were killed in a single US raid in Mosul in March. While our Air Force may not deliberately target civilians as do terror groups like ISIS, the use of this means of warfare inevitably results in large amounts of so-called "collateral damage".

I am saddened by the fact that the US seems ever more bent on simply murdering extremists who are labeled as "terrorists" and "killers", without addressing the factors that produce the growing number of these "terrorists" who are bent on destroying us at whatever cost.

We have yet to learn that violence, in whatever form, inevitably results in setting off an unending crescendo of more and more of the same.

New Russian Cathedral Highlights Stalin, Putin

This is among the world's tallest Russian Orthodox churches.

According to the UK's Guardian, the new Russian Cathedral dedicated May 9 features mosaics celebrating the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany as well as the 2014 annexation of Crimea. Included are images of Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Putin and numerous other Russian military and political figures.

Named the Resurrection of Christ Cathedral, it is a massive monument to Russian armed might located in the military's Patriot Park just outside of Moscow.

One cannot help wondering what happens to the integrity of the Christian faith when the official patriarchs of that faith bless and elevate politicians and generals associated with bloody military campaigns. And when the resurrection of Christ is conflated with the conquest of Crimea, an act that Ukraine and many its allies around the world consider a war crime. Or when icons of revered saints are portrayed alongside with some of the most ruthless politicians and generals imaginable.

A 2019 Founders Day Parade in front of the Cadet Chapel.

In our country, the Air Force Academy Chapel in Colorado is an example of a similar blending of religious piety with military might. It consists of 17 spires 150 feet high and was built at a cost of $3.5 million. Many other costly furnishings were provided by members of Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist organizations, each of which have a separate meeting area on one of three stories of the cathedral.

The largest (upper level) sanctuary is for Protestants, seats 1200 people and, ironically, displays a 49 foot aluminum cross. The ends of its walnut and mahogany pews are sculpted to resemble early World War I propellers, and the backs of the pews are capped by a strip of aluminum like that of the edge of the wing of a fighter jet aircraft.

In some respect the Air Force may appear to be the more polished and least brutal of our military branches, less associated with images of hand to hand, grenade and artillery  fighting in bloody trenches. But in reality, the terror wrought by highly sophisticated drones and fighter jets has raised the level of military brutality to entirely new levels.

The first major arial bombing of civilians was in Guernica, a town in northern Spain, in its 1936-1939 Civil War. The world responded with moral outrage when Nazi Germany and Fascist Italian planes, at the request of the Spanish Nationalists, dropped artillery on its largely unarmed population. Pablo Picasso's 1937 portrayal of the first indiscriminate attack of this kind featured flames, screaming women and dismembered and mutilated animals and humans in the most powerful anti-war painting of all time.

Little did anyone dream then that less than a decade later Allied planes would be engaging in saturation bombing of whole cities and use nuclear bombs to incinerate civilians wholesale in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Sadly, neither the United States Air Force Academy Cadet Cathedral nor Russia's Resurrection of Christ Cathedral will include any mosaic decrying that kind of genocide.

Pablo Picasso's Guernica.

War-Making--An Unimaginably Brutal, Barbaric, Bloody, Cruel, Insane, Heartless And Hellish Form Of Terror, Murder And Mass Destruction

Kim Thi Kim Phic, left center, fleeing napalm bombing by the
South Vietnamese Air Force in 1972. Three times as much
firepower was used in that horrific, senseless war as in all of WWII. 

A week ago, on Good Friday, I posted a blog with the title "Crucifixion: An Unimaginably Brutal, Barbaric, Bloody, Cruel, and Heartless Form Of Execution." 

Today's post is about nations continuing to inflict horrific forms of "crucifixions" in the name of "defense" and "national security."  

The only way we will ever bring an end to war-making is to be brutally honest about what it really is, and to stop using sanitized euphemisms and code words to describe it. 

So what would be more accurate and truthful alternatives to the use of toned down and misleading terms such as the following?

defense, as in "national defense," "defense departments," "defense contracts," "the Department of Defense" (once called the Department of War"). An enterprise utilizing explosive weapons designed to efficiently destroy, kill and cause unimaginable harm should hardly be considered a mere means of defending against harm.

national security, as in "national security forces" or "national security budgets." Can the investment of trillions of dollars on the part of nations around the world for such "security" really make the world a more secure and safe place ?

conflict, as in the "Korean conflict," "the conflict in Afghanistan," "conflicts around the world. " Would not a word like "conflagration" be more accurate?

engage, as in "engaged the enemy" or "military engagement." While this sounds totally harmless, it is the extreme opposite.

incursion, as in "Cambodian incursion," "Chinese Air Force incursion into Taiwan," etc. These are code words for unimaginably hostile and bloody invasions.

mission, as in "a bombing mission" or "on a mission to neutralize the enemy." Hardly the kind of benign activity we usually associate with the word mission.

service/duty, as in "tour of duty," "in the service," "active duty," "duty (or service) to your country," "service member," etc. No hint of any harm being done by anyone anywhere, or if there is, it is seen as totally necessary and justified.

campaign/raid, as in "military campaign," or "daring raid." The former is war-making on a more massive scale than the latter but both are intended to inflict irreparable damage to human life and/or property. 

sacrifice, as in "the ultimate sacrifice" or "sacrifice for your country." While we must never minimize the terrible toll war-making takes on those who wage it, a warring nation's goal is always to make "sacrifices" of as many enemy lives as possible, not their own. 

 fallen, as in "honor the fallen," or "fallen heroes." Yes, we must of course forever lament and mourn the extreme suffering and the many lives lost in all wars, while doing everything possible to prevent the tragic and untimely deaths of recruits forced to be "in harm's way" (another common euphemism).

So do we have the courage to call war the insanity it really is?

Mark Twain wrote his famous "War Prayer" in 1905, which was before the era of ever more terrifying weapons of mass destruction being dropped from the air or fired from long range missiles. It was his way of injecting some truth into the Orwellian language we typically use for war-making. 

Anticipating strongly negative reactions from his readers, Twain asked that the War Prayer not be published until after his death, stating that "only dead men can speak the truth in this world."

Here is the closing part of his satirical prayer:

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with hurricanes of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen." 

Night Of Infamy In Dresden, February 13-14, 1945

Dresden, Germany, after four Allied bombing raids, February 13-15

On this night 70 years ago one of the most intense Allied air strikes ever waged against a German city was launched.

According to the History.com website, the target, Dresden, was known as "the Florence of the Elbe" one the world's most beautiful cities. Less industrialized than most, it had contributed only marginally to the war effort compared to many other German cities, and since it was also less well defended, it would not have been able to put up much resistance to advancing Russian forces from the east at this stage of World War II.

Here is a section of the History.com article:

On the night of February 13, hundreds of RAF bombers descended on Dresden in two waves, dropping their lethal cargo indiscriminately over the city. The city's air defenses were so weak that only six Lancaster bombers were shot down. By the morning, some 800 British bombers had dropped 1,478 tons of high-explosive bombs and 1,182 tons of incendiaries on Dresden, creating a great firestorm that destroyed most of the city and killed numerous civilians. Later that day, as survivors made their way out of the smoldering city, over 300 U.S. bombers began bombing Dresden's railways, bridges, and transportation facilities, killing thousands more. On February 15, another 200 U.S. bombers continued their assault on the city's infrastructure. All told, the bombers of the U.S. Eighth Air Force dropped 954 tons of high-explosive bombs and 294 tons of incendiaries on Dresden. Later, the Eighth Air Force would drop 2,800 more tons of bombs on Dresden in three other attacks before the war's end.

The fires that resulted were so intense that they literally sucked the oxygen from the air, causing horrible deaths by asphyxiation and the superheated air as well as from burning men, women and children alive.

Here is a link to a graphic Youtube depiction of that terrible event, and this one to some other blogs on aerial bombings as a modern form of holocaust.

In Tomahawk And MOAB Terror We Trust

Those who live by inflicting terror will one day perish by it.

A false religion gains adherents by representing immense power, inspiring great awe, promising absolute security, and demanding unquestioning and sacrificial investment.

American militarism is about all four, as epitomized by its two showcase bombings last week. The first was an attack on a Syrian air base by 59 Tomahawk missiles, and the second a first-time-ever use of an 11-ton "Mother Of All Bombs" on an ISIS-occupied tunnel complex in Afghanistan.

Each strike was designed to have as much of a psychological impact as a strategic one. The launch of the Tomahawks, each carrying a half ton of explosives and valued at roughly $1.4 million (multiply that by 59, though only 23 hit their intended target), resulted in a lot of chaos and a few human casualties, but the airfield targeted was again operational within days. But the $16 million MOAB, launched from a large cargo plane, is reported to have killed some 90 ISIS fighters and inflicted untold damage on their hideout (one originally funded in part by the CIA when we were supporting Ben Ladin in his fight against the USSR). I have no idea what it cost to deliver this payload, but over $300 million was invested in the development of this most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever, one we finally got to test-target in Afghanistan.

Most of our current military actions no longer involve the use of soldiers with rifles and bayonets, but the massive deployment of "bombs bursting in air" on targets all over Syria and Iraq, each of them representing unimaginable acts of terror. And just last week, allied forces dropped over 29 ton of explosives on another air base, with far more total TNT than in a single MOAB. In addition, an attack on another target caused the death of 18 Syrian allied forces. The price we are paying and the toll we and others are inflicting are beyond comprehensible.

What most concerns me is not just that the US Commander-in-Chief, who campaigned against more military involvement abroad, now appears to be ever more willing to exercise it on a massive scale. My greater concern is how the media and the American public are so prone to support him in doing so, praising him for finally being presidential by using terror bombing to strike fear into our foes.

These are the kinds of warlike attitudes and actions that could take the world straight toward Armageddon.

Over 46,000 Gettysburg Casualties, But Only One Civilian Death

Jennie Wade

The July 1-3, 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, considered the bloodiest of the Civil War, resulted in approximately 23,055 Union casualties (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded and 5,369 captured or missing) out of a force of nearly 94,000. On the Confederate side there were some 23,231 losses (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded and 5,830 captured or missing) out of a force of 71,699. An unknown number of additional deaths followed as many of the wounded perished from lack of adequate medical care.

What I find remarkable is that the only civilian casualty of that conflict was 20-year-old Mary Virginia ("Jennie") Wade, who was shot at 8:30 am, July 3, at her sister Georgia McClellans's home by a bullet that went through two wooden doors and struck her left shoulder blade and heart, killing her instantly. There were other Gettysburg civilians, including children, who died later as a result of live ammunition left on the surrounding battlefields after the war, but no other noncombatants were killed during the three day conflict.

Prior to her death Jennie is reported to have said, "If there is anyone in this house that is to be killed today, I hope it is me, as Georgia has a little baby." That baby had just been born to Jennie's sister in a difficult delivery two days before, and Jennie and her mother were there to help take care of Georgia and the new arrival as well as to bake bread for hungry Union troops.

To add to the tragedy of the story, Jennie is believed to have been engaged to a Corporal Johnston Skelly of the 87th Pennsylvania regiment who, unknown to her, had been wounded and captured in a battle in Winchester on May 13, then died in a Confederate hospital there on July 12. He also never heard about his fiance's tragic death over a week earlier.

Many other civilians died elsewhere as a direct or indirect result of the Civil War, some due to malnutrition and disease (there were in fact twice as many soldiers who died from infections and infectious diseases as by guns or cannons). But civilians were not normally in the line of fire as they are today. With the use of aerial bombing, missile attacks and drone warfare, war has become ever more inhumane and barbaric, and many more civilians are killed or injured than combatants.

When will we ever learn?

Information from various online sources and from a recent visit to Gettysburg.