Blog For Arizona

Michael: Blessed are the Warmongers

Most will have heard by now about Rep. Sam Johnson's (R-Texas) intemperate remarks at the Allen, TX Suncreek United Methodist Church.

Just in case, I quote:

"Syria is the problem. Syria is where those weapons of mass destruction are, in my view. You know, I can fly an F-15, put two nukes on 'em and I'll make one pass. We won't have to worry about Syria anymore."

I resisted writing about this for awhile, because I generally distain such low-hanging fruit. There are so many ways in which this government official's (I cringe just typing that...) statement is at the same time deeply stupid, deeply wrong, and deeply frightening. To avoid too long a post on the same topics the entire blogosphere, even many conservative blogs, are buzzing disapprovingly about, I will select just one small aspect of the wrongness; one of the most frightening, in my opinion.

Reportedly, Johnson was speaking at a veteran's event at the Methodist Church, and according to Roll Call's Mary Ann Akers, who was given a tape of the event, the "crowd roared with applause" at Johnson's rhetoric Now, it may be an unwarranted assumption on my part, but I would think that some portion, if not the majority, of those in attendance were Christians. Possibly very devout ones. But however pious they may be, they were still cheering the proposed destruction of hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of innocent lives.

The war in Iraq has shown there really is no such thing as precision bombing, but a nuclear weapon makes 'collateral damage' of massive proportions even more certain. So we have a room full of Christians cheering for the certain slaughter of innocents.

Perhaps these folks aren't well versed in the demographics of Syria. They might believe that there are nothing but heathen Mohammedians there, all of whom presumably deserve to die anyway. But 10% of the Syrian population are Christians; some of the oldest Christian communities in the world, in fact. Most of them live in or near Damascus. If a nuclear weapon were used on Syria, the highest value target is Damascus.

So, we have a room full of Christian military veterans cheering the proposed murder of 1.2 million innocent Christians to get at some hypothetical WMD. Is there anything wrong or frightening about that picture to you? People's values become distorted when they are kept in a state of fear by their leaders. How fearful would you have to be to cheer the slaughter of a million of your brothers and sisters in Christ?

Pity America. So very powerful, and so very afraid.

posted by Michael Bryan @ 3/01/2005 11:09:00 PM