I recently saw a reporter on TV who spent the last few years in Iraq. He said he’d had life-changing experiences there and when pressed to tell of one, he recounted an episode about the kidnapping of a young girl.
It seems that the daughter of a fairly rich Iraqi man was kidnapped and held for ransom -- a rather common occurrence these days I understand. When the kidnappers called to talk about the ransom, the father demanded to talk to his daughter. She came on the line sobbing and crying, quite terrified, hardly able to speak. Her father only wanted to know from her whether she had been raped. She finally sobbed yes.
He told her to give the phone back to one of her captors and when that despot came on the line the father told him to keep his daughter, he didn’t want her back. And so they killed the daughter.
Here was a young girl sentenced to death by her father -- who apparently could have saved her quite easily -- because she’d been raped and was no longer a virgin. And we are sending our children over to Iraq to fight and die for the rights of her father – this homicidal maniac. What are we thinking?
Near the end of the Viet Nam war it is said that the tipping point for public opinion came when on the six o’clock news we all clearly saw that Viet Namese officer shoot in the head a young soldier who was handcuffed and kneeling.
Isn’t the story of this child’s death even more horrible? She was no enemy combatant; just a young innocent caught in the middle. Can’t we clearly see her handcuffed and kneeling? Can’t we clearly see that despicable abductor putting a gun to her young head and pulling the trigger? And can’t we clearly see her -- who had most certainly loved her equally despicable father and always tried to live up to his maniacal code, but sadly and helplessly got caught in-between -- see her fall, dead before she hit the dirt floor?
PEOPLE, WE ARE SENDING OUR CHILDREN TO FIGHT AND DIE FOR THE RIGHTS OF MEN SO UTTERLY MORALLY TWISTED THAT THEY VALUE THEIR DAUGHTERS’ VIRGINITY HIGHER THAN THEIR DAUGHTERS’ LIVES!! PLEASE TELL ME, WHAT ARE WE THINKING?!!!!!
Clearly there is someone in this gut-wrenching story worthy of us fighting for, but she’s dead. She may have a younger sister who is still alive, but sadly we can’t save her sister either. We should know by now that we cannot change the beliefs and codes, the traditions, values and laws of billions of people by force. What are we thinking?
Over time and by example, I believe that we are likely to save her sister’s daughter’s daughter’s daughter -- however many generations into the future -- but our futile attempts to force change only serve to strengthen the resolve and increase the numbers of opponents of change, thus pushing those changes farther into the distant future.