Those of you who know me know that I am not a political person whatsoever. Those of you not living under a rock, know that late last night it was announced that the US Armed Forces completed a raid which resulted in the DNA confirmed death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. He had not been living in the mountains on the Afghan border as had been speculated but was found 9.5 years after the terrorist attack of 9/11 living in a compound valued at approximately 1 million dollars. While the compound was worth 1 million dollars, there was absolutely no internet and or telephone connections.
I am not trying to be a critic, or a skeptic or anything like that. I will claim myself ignorant on such subjects and write as such. I’m also not going to sit here and say that this is not cause for a celebration. I truly believe that this will provide morale to the troops still overseas almost 10 years later, and that it shows that we do not give up. I will try to steer away from the “what have we really accomplished?” question.
But at what cost? The members of Al Qaeda have already declared that the death of Osama bin Laden will not affect the efforts of their Jihad.
And this is where I get stuck. What am I willing to do for my God? The Alpha, the Omega. These people are willingly giving their lives over and over again and yet I sit here and fight God on the smallest tasks like reaching out and touching someone’s life in a way I couldn’t even begin to understand. In a society where we clearly do not agree with their culture and what it is that they are doing, I honestly get sick with myself to know that they have more faith in their left pinky than I have in my entire body, heart, and soul.
Anyway, here are a few links so you can read about it if you haven’t already.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_bin_laden_the_raid
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/02/obama-to-make-statment-tonight-subject-unknown/?hpt=T1&iref=BN1
Really insightful point about these people having so much faith that they're willing to give and take lives for their God. What I'm curious about is who decides whose faith is better? Is it the ones who are willing to go to the most extremes for faith? Or is it the ones who can enforce it with the biggest guns?
ReplyDeleteWhen two people have 100% faith that their gods want them to kill each other, is it just a matter of inconsequential cultural differences, or is there some standard with which an independent observer can say one is justified?