Adrift at Sea

I've had the feeling for several days that America is adrift at sea... a sea of evil. In church this morning, people spoke of all our interconnectedness. I do feel that connection with other people, but I feel my government is totally adrift and totally disconnected.

These are some of the depressing incidents that happened this past week, brought to you by US government policies and actions:

• Seven US soldiers died in one sad KA-BOOM
• Iraqi insurgents killed another 100 people
• a US soldier got 6 months in prison and a demotion (that is all!) for forcing an Iraqi into the Tigris river last January. They decided this was only an assault. This Iraqi man drowned, per his family. His cousin writes a blog called "Healing Iraq".
• oh, and the commending officer of that unit told the soldiers what to say about the incident. And their stories changed several times.
• that entire incident would have never even been noticed if not for the fact that the dead man's cousin has a blog, and he got many people involved in the investigation. That's one small bright spot: several US officers demanded an investigation of the Iraqi man's death.
• in Mosul, the US forces bombed the wrong house. The US claims 5 "possibly innocent lives" were lost, but Iraqi people and the AP report 14 dead, seven of them children. They also have 14 graves to back up their claims.
• it is a war crime to bomb a residential area, no matter who is there, no matter why
• the "possibly innocent" claim is particularly evil: now the Iraqi people are "guilty until proven innocent", even if they are only sleeping inside their own homes
• also this week, the US forces killed 5 innocents (2 were Iraqi police)...(oh, and the Iraqi hospital says it was 8, not 5 dead people) after a roadside bomb went off. It is pretty well established that these were innocents killed, regardless
• FAUX news says the Americans killed 5 terrorists in "retaliation"
• US authorities say they can hold "terrorists" for life with no trial. Just because they can, I guess. Goodbye, rule of law.....
• plenty of stories of extravagant inaugural parties (why do people spend money so foolishly?)
• parts of Fallujah are being "resettled" even though they have no water, sewer, electricity, or (a lot of times) homes.... and over 700 bodies have been found. 550 are reported to be women and children.
• In Iraq, Sgt. Royd Nuckols, 30, of Folcroft, Pa., agreed: "I don't want my wife or my kids to know the stuff I've had to do or see."
• who knows what kind of shape Sgt. Nuckols will be in when he gets home.
• and the worst part of all is the Abu Gonzales thing. I'm not even going to comment on that, except I called Senator Graham (SC-R) to say thank you for speaking the truth.

The level of callousness, the level of hypocrisy, the level of true evil, is such as I have never seen before in my (almost) 50 years.

We are adrift, and seemingly without morals.

In today's local paper, a letter to the editor by a Mr. Britton said: "we are getting our red, white and blue rear-end kicked in Iraq" and for Iraqi people "democracy is found in a dictionary between damnation and devastation". I don't know this man, but he has a way with words.

I'm off to a peace vigil, one of three held ever week in Asheville. I will pray for some moral guidance for American leaders.