We Need To Declare "Domicide" A War Crime

When we destroy homes and other structures that
families and communities depend on we are
committing exceptionally cruel forms of violence.
(photo by UNRWA USA)

Let woe and waste of warfare cease,

that useful labor yet may build

its homes with love and laughter filled!

God give your wayward children peace!

- William M. Vories "Let there Be Light"

Wars are becoming ever bloodier and more destructive, with increased numbers of innocent men, women and children being mercilessly incinerated, dismembered, buried alive under rubble and horribly maimed for life. What seems to get less attention is the wholesale destruction of buildings and infrastructure belonging to the victims of war-- homes, schools, hospitals and other structures vital to their life and their future.

"Domicide" is a word I coined from domicile, defined as a place of residence or habitation, a dwelling, a home. Human beings are highly dependent on such physical spaces for shelter and warmth, secure places absolutely necessary for human nurture and survival.

So if we are to be pro-life, we need to be about doing everything possible to preserve the physical structures necessary to sustain life.

As a minister, I find it interesting that Jesus spent most of his life as an apprentice of Joseph, identified as a carpenter, though the Greek word used is more accurately translated "craftsman" or "carver." In other words, he was trained as a builder and construction worker. The most common construction material in his day was stone, and Jesus frequently uses foundation stones and cornerstones as metaphors. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount he notes that those who hear and practice his teachings are like wise builders who build their house on a solid rock foundation. He also laments the tragedy of the Jewish temple one day being so demolished that "not one stone remains on another," a sign of unimaginable tragedy.

Every domicile represents the work of people spending an untold number of hours in the creation of human habitat. Out of respect to those who have designed, prized, and found refuge in these edifices, we should consider it a mortal sin to even think of destroying them. These are not just houses, but homes where, as one unknown author has written, "love resides, friends always belong, and laughter never ends." Or at least until war rears its ugly head and satisfies its insatiable appetite for destruction.

Here in our seemingly safe Valley we haven't experienced war first hand since General Sheridan terrorized the population by setting fire to hundreds of mills and barns up and down the Shenandoah Valley. But while there were ongoing battles in the area that resulted in the brutal deaths of too many Union and Confederate soldiers, most homes, schools, churches, villages and their civilian inhabitants survived, and many pre-Civil War buildings and other infrastructure remain intact today.

Today's wars are unimaginably more destructive, with densely populated Gaza being pounded with a daily barrage of exceptionally large 1000 to 2000 pound bombs in areas with dense civilian populations. According to US intelligence estimates the Israeli military, with full US support, has dropped more than 29,000 of these since its onslaught began, with 40-45% of these being unguided. This is equivalent to the destruction resulting from the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WW II. 

The results are horrific, and provide yet another reason to denounce, once and for all, war itself as the world's worst kind of crime against humanity.