Day Four of Gulf War II
Made it to Florida in one piece after a lengthy flight delay.
Being here is bizarre - people enjoying the warm weather and palms while some of our fellow countrymen are in warm weather with palms under much different circumstances halfway around the world.
It's amazing to me sometimes how people are able to just disconnect from what is happening in the world and pretend the world is normal.
I feel like Deanna Troy from Star Trek many times - the empath in the crowd. Does everybody else have it more together? Am I built "too close to the water" as they say in Germany? I cry always and everywhere.
One surprise for me today: While I find it totally despicable that Al Jazeerah showed pictures of dead US soldiers after an ambush, I also don't agree with the US complaining about the US POWs being shown on TV: I distinctly remember one of the embedded US journalists walking around in the middle of the night yesterday and having his cameramen show up-close shots of Iraqi POWs cowering on the desert ground. I think that was equally wrong. I am not sure how far the Geneva Convention speaks to the depiction of prisoners of war. MSNBC says that showing pictures of POWs is against the Geneva Convention. In this case, I think we are equally guilty - albeit the Iraqi POWs were not shown in the demeaning manner ours were on Iraqi TV. At any rate, I pray that both groups are treated with dignity according to the Geneva Convention.
Interesting, too, that there may now be the proverbial smoking gun since they apparently found a well-disguised chemical factory. Can't wait to find out what it is they were making there.
What will the world say if this is so??
Carl, our pastor, gave a very emotional sermon this morning before I left. He talked about the last book of Acts and recounted the faith Paul displayed under the most extreme circumstances even while in chains and in prison for a long time in unbelievable conditions. He also read a story about how Paul's death may have eventually played out. What a great man of faith!
I would pray that our brothers and sisters in Christ in the armed forces now would operate with equal faith while they are surrounded by so much turmoil.
In Christ,
Elke
posted by Elke at 10:49 PM