Okay, so a certain well-known President recently made a speech to his people, in which he told them that their country's military "don't do pinpricks". His intention was to get across that when those soldiers do a "limited" or even "targeted" strike, it hurts. But those of us in the cynical wing of the listening public took it the other way. They don't do anything, not even pinpricks. Can't do anything. Military solutions, at that level, somehow don't seem to happen any more.
Maybe that's because past "adventures" have turned out so badly. Maybe it's because credible military strategies can't be built around what they're NOT going to achieve - this is NOT about regime change, etc. - and maybe we should bear in mind that there aren't many happy precedents for firing missiles into the Middle East and getting "Sorry, you're right and I was wrong" in return. Life isn't like that.
Maybe it'll all kick off tomorrow. But at the time of writing, the whole thing seems to have been drowned in words. Plans to put chemical weapons beyond use. Debates, resolutions. A happier ending if not a happy ending - no, not an ending at all. We've all seen those pictures. The people who did that are still in place.
My question is, where are the religious leaders? There's so much religious motivation inside these conflicts, that maybe the (attempted) outside interventions should be religious rather than political? A cleric preaching a message of hate is not outranked by a politician blathering about targeted blah-blah, but such a figure might be outranked by a more senior cleric preaching a message of love. Or even a message of "killing is not the answer."
What would [Who would you like? Gandhi, maybe?] say?
Maybe that's because past "adventures" have turned out so badly. Maybe it's because credible military strategies can't be built around what they're NOT going to achieve - this is NOT about regime change, etc. - and maybe we should bear in mind that there aren't many happy precedents for firing missiles into the Middle East and getting "Sorry, you're right and I was wrong" in return. Life isn't like that.
Maybe it'll all kick off tomorrow. But at the time of writing, the whole thing seems to have been drowned in words. Plans to put chemical weapons beyond use. Debates, resolutions. A happier ending if not a happy ending - no, not an ending at all. We've all seen those pictures. The people who did that are still in place.
My question is, where are the religious leaders? There's so much religious motivation inside these conflicts, that maybe the (attempted) outside interventions should be religious rather than political? A cleric preaching a message of hate is not outranked by a politician blathering about targeted blah-blah, but such a figure might be outranked by a more senior cleric preaching a message of love. Or even a message of "killing is not the answer."
What would [Who would you like? Gandhi, maybe?] say?