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Mariam Ismail Al Abdullah, 50, wails in anger and sadness over the death of 12 close family members who were killed by Israeli rockets as they attempted to flee the village of Marwahin in Southern Lebanon less than a week ago. Their bodies lay alongside more than 70 other war casualties outside the Public Hospital of the El Buss Palestinian Refugee camp in the city of Tyre, Lebanon. (Robert Gauthier / LAT) 7/21/06
An article in the Los Angeles Times reports that a government hospital in Lebanon ran out of room for bodies on Friday last. They resorted to buuilding cheap coffins of pine, digging a ditch in a desolate lot filled with old telephone poles, and quickly buried the bodies.
Megan Stack, LA Times staff writer, wrote:
"The stench of death seeped into the warm seaside air as the dead were brought out. Children pinched their noses; the men's faces grew a little stonier. Men and boys jostled on the streets and hoisted themselves up hospital walls to better view the spectacle.
There was no opportunity for a more dignified burial: The clashes between Israel and Hezbollah have been too fierce for people to collect their loved ones or hold funerals."'I've been a doctor for years, and I've never seen anything like this,' said Nabil Harkus, a slight man who stood over a trio of unidentified corpses and spoke with slow, intense rage. 'They can't fight Hezbollah because Hezbollah is not an army,' he said, referring to the Israeli warplanes overhead. 'They kill the people because they think it's the only way to stop Hezbollah.'"
The coffins were plain and thin, knocked together overnight for the grim task of burial the next day. There came in different sizes, including small ones for the children. Refrigerated trucks, full of bodies, were emptied by hospital workers.
"A man in a surgical mask stood in the back of the truck. He shouted out the name of each dead person as he lowered the remains. Whole bodies had been shrouded in blankets, wrapped in sheets of plastic and bound by duct tape. Other bodies, more badly broken, were handed down in plastic trash bags …
"The man held aloft a baby so tiny it was unclear if it was a late-term fetus or a newborn. Its skin was mottled and purple. 'Look at this!' he shouted. A murmur passed through the crowd. 'Oh no, no, no,' a man muttered. 'God is great!' shouted others
"Family members waiting in the crowd came forward to unwrap their relatives from the plastic, line their coffins with bedsheets and say goodbye. But most of the victims had no relatives present; their coffin lids were nailed shut by strangers."
After considering this kind of report, I can almost understand why we have to dehumanize our enemies - how else can we wage this kind of war on them? We may be be shocked when we read that John Bolton said:
"I think it would be a mistake to ascribe moral equivalence to civilians who die as the direct result of malicious terrorist acts. It's simply not the same thing to say that it's the same act to deliberately target innocent civilians, to desire their deaths, to fire rockets and use explosive devices or kidnapping versus the sad and highly unfortunate consequences of self-defense."
But is OUR Sunday morning prayer asking God to protect those serving in the armed forces of the United States a whole lot better, especially since that "protection" will sometimes come at the cost of civilian lives?
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