WHOSE TERRORISM DO WE SEE?

After the obligatory gasping stories about how much snow and cold there is (Shocking! During winter, no less!), the first few stories on the CBS Evening News tonight were about terrorism and violence afflicting the world:

- President Obama’s plan to confront ISIS.

- Jeb Bush “breaking” with the two former Bush Presidents about Iraq.

- An inside look at ISIS’s ability to recruit young, disaffected men in many countries, from a reporter and the former number two man at the CIA.

- A report on the “American Sniper” trial, and then another “inside look” at real American snipers.

There is no doubt that the world is a pretty dangerous place these days: Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, and Palestine, just to name a few.  Plots and foiled plots in Canada, Denmark, France, the U.S. It does seem at times that violence and cruelty are winning.

What was interesting in all the news stories was what wasn’t being said.  No mention of our drone strikes in various countries.  The CIA spook turned terrorism expert—who has resolutely defended our torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo as justified—did not mention that ISIS grew out of the US invasion of Iraq, and the sectarian war that invasion ignited.  Jeb Bush was quoted on Iraq that saying he would have done a better job of providing security in Iraq after Hussein was overthrown.  What he didn’t say was that he would not have invaded a predominately Muslim country under false pretences. 

All of the stories put violence and terrorism as something others do, and that we have to confront.  Nothing about our role in all this.  To me, the most chilling was the report on “our” snipers, who can hit a “target” (that is, human being) from miles away, without being seen.  This may not be the exact quote about the effect on those being sniped, but it’s pretty close:

“When you have no idea where the shot just came from, and you see someone around your drop, that sends a very strong message.”

That message, of course, is terror: we can do to you what we just did to the person next to you. We killed him, and we can do that to you whenever we want.

The problem of terror and violence is real, and we need to confront it.  But as long as we see it only as something other nations and other groups do, and not see how our actions and those of our allies (including horrible regimes like Saudi Arabia) are part of it, we’re not likely to see it diminishing.   I don’t have an easy, or even a complicated solution to offer. I do know that seeing the truth, and telling it have to be at the foundation.

I just placed ashes on beloved parishioners’ foreheads, and reminded them of our mortality and the promise of resurrection beyond that.  Then my wife placed the same ashes on me.  I know the violence that lives in my heart, and I know how easy that is to come out in words, and in judgment of other people.  Confessing that in the presence of others is not the end of it, but I pray that it can be a beginning.

Be justice. Be beauty.  Be honest.

Patrick