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The Forum > Article Comments > Compassion requires more courage than war > Comments

Compassion requires more courage than war : Comments

By Katharina Weiss, published 14/8/2006

It is time to see the world through the eyes of compassion, rather than those of fear and economic greed.

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History is littered with the fossils of our ancestors. Since Arcane times, creatures great and small have killed and been consumed in their turn. The whole lifespring has been a battle for lebenstraum. A battle for energy.

That's fine if you're a cockroach. Act in character. Be a good cockroach. Nothing wrong with that. Cockroaches are fine and noble creatures - survivors. What are humans, but cockroaches in a different guise.

Scuttle into the light, then duck into the shadows again. Trust no-one. Look for clues, the colour, the accent, the gesture, the ancestry. Avoid foreigners - only cockroaches need apply. Danger, danger. Scuttle, scuttle. Survival is paramount.

When contemplating all of these things, Charles Darwin pondered upon the reason for the development of the human brain. He surmised that we may be a break with the old Arcane rules of evolution. A truly new creature. A turning point. A wholly new paradigm.

How disappointing, Leigh.
Posted by Chris Shaw, Carisbrook 3464, Monday, 14 August 2006 6:51:52 PM
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Mark Regev just did another interview with Kerry O'Brien and when Kerry asked him about the deaths in Lebanon he said he didn't know about them really but there had been lots of deaths in Israel.

Lets look at that statement. Israel 149 deaths, 40 of them civilians.
Lebanon - 1140 deaths, over 1,000 civilians.
Palestine - 170 deaths, mostly civilians.

Regev sees only the Israelis. Now he is an interesting character. Gained his bachelors of history and defence in Melbourne and before November 2004 was the Israeli Ambassador in the US. Before that he had not lived in Israel from 1991 onwards.

So it would seem that he left before Hezbollah became the political party and soclal welfare agency that helped build hospitals, schools, clinics and such in the south of Beirut with a tiny armed wing that grew after 1994.

All he knew was that he left when Lebanon was over run by Israeli soldiers and the christians were paid by the Israelis to murder the shi'ites. 22,000 people were slaughtered and an 18 year occupation.

Gideon Levy in the Haaretz claims the whole thing is about the land and water, Seymour Hersh says it was all planned with Bush, Cheney and co. much earlier than stated, certainly before the 2 soldiers.

How many people believe that the loss of over 100 more Israeli soldiers was just to get back two others?

Hmmm. Katharina, while people like Regev with their amoral certainty are in control there will be no compassion.
Posted by Marilyn Shepherd, Monday, 14 August 2006 9:00:40 PM
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Marilyn Hmmmmmm. Who honestly believes that Iran did not direct Hezbollah to set in motion the events that lead to this war to deflect the growing concern the UN about its nuclear program?
Same as when they started the little issue about the Danish cartoons just when a new country was to take over the chairmanship of the UN group dealing with the same issue......Denmark.
Posted by The Big Fish, Monday, 14 August 2006 11:07:13 PM
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Very true, kindness and compassion is true religion: Ubi caritas et amor - Deus ibi est!

I do not support the attitude of General Dan Halutz. I support his actions, but not his attitude.

There are times, hopefully not too often, when compassion dictates painful action, there are situations when the most compassionate act is to kill a villain, freeing that villain from his cruel existence and the accumulation of more horrendous karma.

There are times, and even the Dalai Lama would acknowledge it, when the religious duty, the dharma of those naturally born and destined to uphold and protect society, the kshatrias, is to fight and kill, weep and shoot, shoot and weep, and pray for the departed souls of even their worst and ugliest enemies, then apologize to their widows crying "sorry, but we could not do better, we had no choice".

In the last war, civilians died on both sides. The number of Lebanese casualties was not as high as claimed because most of them were Hezbullah fighters, and unlike Hezbullah, Israel never deliberately targeted civilians, but still, each and every soul is a whole world and my heart is torn for those unfortunate Lebanese hostages who were caught in the fighting.

Shiite mothers of Lebanon: your pain today is great. If that can be any comfort and consolance, your sons are now in a better place than where they were before this war.

I sincerely hope that this war has been the last and from now on the people of Israel and Lebanon, who have common interests and not even any dispute between them, will live in peace forever.
Posted by Yuyutsu, Monday, 14 August 2006 11:40:01 PM
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I'm sure it was misguided compassion, from the bleeding hearts, that led to the hounding out of office, of the Smith government in Rhodesia.
I am also sure that there are a couple of million people in Zimbabwe, who wish the bleeding hearts had kept their compassion to themselves.
Of course, they never learn. They'd do it again, [& are doing it], because its the "right" thing to do.
God help us.
Posted by Hasbeen, Tuesday, 15 August 2006 12:01:17 AM
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Leigh “Tell it to the Islamic terrorists, dearie”

Agree – Appeasement has never worked, the appeasers have always ended up being annihilated by the aggressor.

The real “Courage” is to attempt to deploy warfare on a limited manner as Israel has. Although, the Israelis need to reserve the option to extend their military endeavours to whatever degree they see as needed for security of their state against an (inept) aggressor.

As for “History is littered with peace activists, do-gooders and bleeding hearts;” –

Yep, a lot are buried in neat grave yards whereas the men who fought to defend the appeasers right to choose where to be buried were lost on the field of battle, no bits left to bury.

Hasbeen, Zimbabwe – it is strange, after 15 years of trade sanctions the Smith-Southern-Rhodesia economy and social fabric of the nation (all races) was many time better and stronger than the subsequent 26 years of unfettered Mugabe-Zimbabwe corruption.

Strangely, one of the interesting things I heard when in South Africa whilst it was still sufferingfrom apartheid. Africans were cueing up to go to work under the tyranny of apartheid from countries like Tanzania, Malawi and Botswana because the ineptitude of supposed democratic black government in those countries produced inferior outcomes for living than the oppression of apartheid.

The problem is, do-gooders and bleeding hearts do not put food in bellies.
Posted by Col Rouge, Tuesday, 15 August 2006 2:22:19 AM
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