The Continued Musings of an Iraqi Citizen in Baghdag
From Where is Raed ?:
The most disturbing news today has come from Al-Jazeera, they said that nine B52 bombers have left the airfield in Britain and flying “presumably” towards Iraq, as if they would be doing a spin around the block. Anyway they have 6 hours to get here.
Last night was very quiet in Baghdad. Today in the morning I went out to get bread and groceries. There were no Ba’ath party people stopping us from leaving the area where we live, this apparently happens after the evening prayers. But they are still everywhere. The streets are empty only bakeries are open and some grocery shops charging 4 times the normal prices, while I was buying bread a police car stopped in front of the bakery and asked the baker if they had enough flour and asked when they opened; the baker told me that they have been informed that they must open their shops and they get flour delivered to them daily. Groceries, meat and dairy products are a different story. One dairy product company seems to be still operating, not state owned, and their cars were going around the city distributing butter, cheese and yoghurt to any open markets. Meat is not safe to buy because you wouldn’t know from where and how it got to the shops. Anyway we bought fresh tomatoes and zucchini for 1000 dinar a kilo which would normally be 250. and most amazingly the garbage car came around.
Friday, March 21, 2003
A Recommendation
It has been interesting to me in my survey of various "Christian" blogs to see the diversity of opinion when it comes to the "Christian's" stance toward war. No doubt the divergence of opinion would exist if the topic were greed, sex, or any of the other areas dealing with the seven deadly sins. Perhaps it is just a matter of how seriously we really take Our Lord Jesus Christ and how much we really believe in God.
When I was reviewing a book on the Algerian Trappist monks who were killed, I was struck by one incident in the early life of the abbot of the monastery. His name was "Christian" and he was serving as a soldier in the French military in North Africa. During his service he befriended a local man who was a devout moslem. At some point during their friendship they discussed prayer and the moslem friend commented to Christian that he was amazed at how "Christians" found it so difficult to pray. "Didn't they believe in God?" the man wondered. Later when Christian came under attack his moslem friend defended him and later was killed for having done so. The experience never left Christian who later became a Trappist monk and in the end gave his life for the love of the Algerians.
The question bears repeating, "Do we believe in God?"
Do we believe that He is all powerful or do we think that it all really depends upon us? Let me recommend a book to anyone who reads this blog. My guess it will upset the majority of people but being upset is not always a bad thing. The book deals with the forces of evil and how they seek to "dominate" in this world both us and others. As much as we seek to dominate others rather accept the dominion of God in our lives we participate in these evil powers. Anyway for those interested the book is by a Walter Wink (he's actually written a series of books on this topic). He is not Catholic but is a Christian and where you might not agree with everything he says I think you will find that it will put the demands of the gospel into focus for you and why we must pray always that "thy kingdom come, thy will be done."
It has been interesting to me in my survey of various "Christian" blogs to see the diversity of opinion when it comes to the "Christian's" stance toward war. No doubt the divergence of opinion would exist if the topic were greed, sex, or any of the other areas dealing with the seven deadly sins. Perhaps it is just a matter of how seriously we really take Our Lord Jesus Christ and how much we really believe in God.
When I was reviewing a book on the Algerian Trappist monks who were killed, I was struck by one incident in the early life of the abbot of the monastery. His name was "Christian" and he was serving as a soldier in the French military in North Africa. During his service he befriended a local man who was a devout moslem. At some point during their friendship they discussed prayer and the moslem friend commented to Christian that he was amazed at how "Christians" found it so difficult to pray. "Didn't they believe in God?" the man wondered. Later when Christian came under attack his moslem friend defended him and later was killed for having done so. The experience never left Christian who later became a Trappist monk and in the end gave his life for the love of the Algerians.
The question bears repeating, "Do we believe in God?"
Do we believe that He is all powerful or do we think that it all really depends upon us? Let me recommend a book to anyone who reads this blog. My guess it will upset the majority of people but being upset is not always a bad thing. The book deals with the forces of evil and how they seek to "dominate" in this world both us and others. As much as we seek to dominate others rather accept the dominion of God in our lives we participate in these evil powers. Anyway for those interested the book is by a Walter Wink (he's actually written a series of books on this topic). He is not Catholic but is a Christian and where you might not agree with everything he says I think you will find that it will put the demands of the gospel into focus for you and why we must pray always that "thy kingdom come, thy will be done."
Thursday, March 20, 2003
Is Saddam Dead?
From CBS News:
In Washington, President Bush huddled with his advisers to decide whether to begin the full-out assault on Iraq. The initial strikes on Baghdad were launched because intelligence detected a chance to kill Saddam. Those strikes were not the massive aerial bombardment planned to open the war.
Intelligence officers, meanwhile, were analyzing a television appearance by a person purported to be Saddam. The appearance came after the bombing, but it was possible the man on camera was not the Iraqi president, but a double.
If you go to the CBS site where they have pictures of Saddam and "Saddam" in the video it is pretty clear it is not the same person.
From CBS News:
In Washington, President Bush huddled with his advisers to decide whether to begin the full-out assault on Iraq. The initial strikes on Baghdad were launched because intelligence detected a chance to kill Saddam. Those strikes were not the massive aerial bombardment planned to open the war.
Intelligence officers, meanwhile, were analyzing a television appearance by a person purported to be Saddam. The appearance came after the bombing, but it was possible the man on camera was not the Iraqi president, but a double.
If you go to the CBS site where they have pictures of Saddam and "Saddam" in the video it is pretty clear it is not the same person.
Administration Phones Vatican
From Zenit News Agency:
"We understand the Holy Father's concern," Powell told the archbishop. "But sometimes issues come before us that cannot be avoided, but because we are peace-loving, we hope they'll go away, and we believe firmly this is one such issue."
From Zenit News Agency:
"We understand the Holy Father's concern," Powell told the archbishop. "But sometimes issues come before us that cannot be avoided, but because we are peace-loving, we hope they'll go away, and we believe firmly this is one such issue."
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
International Dominican Information "Are we less than animals ?" Iraqi Dominican Sisters Appeal to President Bush, American People
A sobering letter addressed to President Bush and the American people from Dominican sisters living in Iraq. Most won't like their message but it is worth reading before you sit down in front of CNN and start watching video of bombs raining down upon the Iraqi people.
Hopefully that will not happen. Hopefully special forces can go in and take Saddam Hussein prisoner and take over the country without a bomb dropping...hopefully.
A sobering letter addressed to President Bush and the American people from Dominican sisters living in Iraq. Most won't like their message but it is worth reading before you sit down in front of CNN and start watching video of bombs raining down upon the Iraqi people.
Hopefully that will not happen. Hopefully special forces can go in and take Saddam Hussein prisoner and take over the country without a bomb dropping...hopefully.
Rome vs. Washington
Interesting piece. I'm including the part of the article where he gives Rome's view of the just war criteria, but the article is about much more than just this. From the The Spectator.co.uk:
The Thomist definition of the necessary conditions for a just war (Summa Theologica, II-II, Q.40) is, like all his writing, admirably straightforward. War must be declared by a competent authority; the US president and Congress fulfil this requirement constitutionally in terms of self-defence, but not to cast America in the role of international policeman. There must be just cause, i.e. attack by an aggressor or a need to restore rights lost under aggression; this validated the 1991 Gulf war, provoked by the invasion of Kuwait. There must also be proportionality — the likely suffering and destruction caused by war must be outweighed by the just cause. Most of the world disputes this in the context of Iraq. The remaining stipulation is the right intention, meaning that the belligerent must intend to re-establish justice and a lasting peace. America clearly has the intention of affording Iraqis an opportunity to live under a more just regime; but the acute hazard of destabilising the Middle East, with the possibility of other governments falling to militant Islam and a massive resurgence of terrorism, could be held to cancel that out.
Interesting piece. I'm including the part of the article where he gives Rome's view of the just war criteria, but the article is about much more than just this. From the The Spectator.co.uk:
The Thomist definition of the necessary conditions for a just war (Summa Theologica, II-II, Q.40) is, like all his writing, admirably straightforward. War must be declared by a competent authority; the US president and Congress fulfil this requirement constitutionally in terms of self-defence, but not to cast America in the role of international policeman. There must be just cause, i.e. attack by an aggressor or a need to restore rights lost under aggression; this validated the 1991 Gulf war, provoked by the invasion of Kuwait. There must also be proportionality — the likely suffering and destruction caused by war must be outweighed by the just cause. Most of the world disputes this in the context of Iraq. The remaining stipulation is the right intention, meaning that the belligerent must intend to re-establish justice and a lasting peace. America clearly has the intention of affording Iraqis an opportunity to live under a more just regime; but the acute hazard of destabilising the Middle East, with the possibility of other governments falling to militant Islam and a massive resurgence of terrorism, could be held to cancel that out.
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