Tread lightly on the things of earth

I’d like to be able to participate in the high-fives going on around me today in response to the apparent news that Baghdad falls to US forces.

But I cannot. I am too much aware that this war has cost us at least 132 U.S. military lives and roughly 3,570 Iraqi lives (2,320 military, 1,250 civilian) [updated 2003-04-10]. Many of the civilian deaths are children. (And is anyone counting the maimed?)

If even one of these dead or maimed children belonged to any of my high-fivin’ colleagues, they’d instantly recognize the cost as too high. And, I fear, they’d be out for blood, more blood, yelling “let’s bomb those bastards even further back to the Stone Age.” Yet now they expect grieving Iraqi parents to appreciate “what we’ve done for them.”

In today’s UK Mirror report Bombs blast homes instead of Saddam:

Behind [the reportedly bomb-targeted al-Sa’ah restaurant] there is now just a huge crater and mounds of rubble.

One body was pulled out dead after a couple of hours. Others were still buried when I got there, including the wife and two children of Abdil Hassad.

Abdil is a Christian who owns a shop. He is a handsome, well-dressed young man in his mid-30s.

He escaped the blast but wife Sena, 36, and daughters Rana, 10, and seven-year-old Maria were not so lucky. I found him sobbing uncontrollably by the pile of rubble.

“My wife and children are there,” he cried as he crouched over the pile of masonry.

These little ones are not dismissable collateral damage. These little ones are not expendable just because they’re not ours. Each person maimed or killed at our hands is precious to God. No matter how much we cheer, the fact of these injuries and deaths is not something that goes away.

Will we be held accountable for our actions? Will Christians in particular be held accountable for our disobedience to Jesus who says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”? Will our haughtiness be brought low?

My head, heart, and gut all tell me yes. If God is just, then yes.

(I assume the high-fivers have also not yet much considered the staggering financial costs.)

This is why I’m not cheering.