Stories of war have swamped us for years. They come back with every new set of warriors ready to play their parts. The grip of war is rarely told from the vantage of the civilian. “Hotel Rwanda” is the movie that stands out recently for its attempt at showing us war from the civilian side. It fails to fully hit, since it cannot answer the two major questions posed by war. It is a good effort, but partial. There isn’t enough of shared language, form, prior examples to rely upon to make its points to the audience.

You can stay out of the fight. Stay clear of the blood. But you cannot stay out of the guilt.– webionaire

There aren’t levels of good in an evil situation, there are only quantities. Your guilt is based on the numbers you kill, not your reason. Israel should have learned this, but they have not. There is never a good time for war, never a good war. Oddly over the past 50 years we have demonstrated, but not learned, the central truth about modern warfare:

War Is Never Won, It just Takes A Break.

Israel is now playing out its part, thinking that they are the heros. They do this every few years. Perhaps the Israeli government, or maybe our own, should issue machetes to every man woman and child so they could march across the borders and take out God’s vengeance. Maybe with machete in hand, satsifaction in the crunch of bone, the smell of fresh hot blood, the screams of fear from civilians and hatred from soldiers. Perhaps this mix of Christmas Blood Pudding would fertilize the tree of peace. Perhaps this blood, bricks, bombs, and bile is just more feed for the God Of War.

You can never kill them all, but you can try.

And the world will let you.