No U.S. president or general or lowly lieutenant acknowledged,
much less apologized, for these illegal and immoral shootings. No
sniper was held accountable.
On May 19 the commander of U.S.
forces in Baghdad, Maj. General Jeffrey Hammond, apologized to
community leaders and imams from the Baghdad neighborhood of Radhwaniya
after it was discovered that a U.S. sniper used a copy of the Quran for
target practice.
Gen. Hammond told the angry crowd, “I come
before you here seeking your forgiveness. In the most humble manner . .
. I say please forgive me and my soldiers. The actions of one soldier
were nothing more than criminal behavior.”
Sheikh Hamadi
al-Qirtani, speaking for the tribal sheiks of Radhwaniya, called the
sniper’s behavior “aggression against the entire Islamic world.” The
Association of Muslim Scholars condemned “this heinous crime against
God’s book” and warned Gen. Hammond, “God preserves his book and [is]
the Great Avenger.”
We need some perspective here!
Nora
and the other innocent Iraqis shot by snipers are made of flesh and
blood and a brain capable of remembering yesterday and hoping for
tomorrow. They are their god’s “Islamic World,” the living testament to
faith in a sacred covenant. It is these human beings who are the
victims of a “heinous crime” and deserve to be avenged by their god, if
not at least apologized to by Gen. Hammond.
Holy books, on the
other hand, are made of cardboard and paper and ink. They are made for
profits (pun absolutely intended). These books are not manna from
heaven. They are manufactured here on Earth and there is nothing sacred
about their physical presence. Whatever “sacredness” there may be in
holy books can, like little Nora, survive a sniper’s bullet. If it
cannot, then it is most assuredly the creation of men, not of gods.
To
seal his apology at Radhwaniya, Gen. Hammond ordered a soldier to kiss
a new copy of the Quran and present it to the community. That done, he
assured them, “I have punished this soldier. [He] has lost the honor to
serve the United States Army and the people of Iraq here in Baghdad.”
The soldier was sent home to his family.
Is it any wonder that
the Vietnam War lasted for more than a decade and claimed the lives of
58,200 Americans and over two million Vietnamese? During that war,
soldiers and marines had to shoot themselves instead of a book in order
to lose the “honor” of serving the U.S. military and the people of
Vietnam and get sent home to their families.
With that in
mind, consider this proposal for a “holey” workable Iraq peace plan:
Mothers write to your son, wives to your husband, and kids to your dad.
Beg him to drill a few 7.62 holes into a holy book of his choice,
turning it into an instrument of peace. Have him respectfully submit
this symbol of peace to his commanding officer with a notarized
photograph to the unit chaplain or local imam. He will no longer be
allowed to “serve” the people of Iraq and will be safely home in a
week. The war will be over by Christmas.
It seems unlikely that
either the Peaceful Prophet of Islam or the Prince of Peace of
Christianity will have a problem with 140,000 holey holy books if it
means saving twice that many lives and the ending of an immoral war and
suffocating occupation.
The Peaceful Prophet said, “Whoever
kills a single soul . . . it is as though he had killed all of
humanity,” while the Prince of Peace made it clear, “Verily I say unto
you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
brethrens, ye have done it unto me.
Neither Prophet nor Prince
ever said anything about “killing” a book. It is the “living testament”
that is sacred to them, not something made of cardboard and paper and
profits.
Robert Weitzel is a contributing editor to Media With a
Conscience. His essays regularly appear in The Capital Times in
Madison, WI. He can be contacted at:
robertweitzel@mac.com
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