Watching the news can sometimes be so unbearable

[popcornbird]

I've been watching the news on the situation in Lebanon today, and the images being shown on the news have brought tears to my eyes. The situation is terrible. So many innocent men, women, and children have been killed. They were just showing the coffin of a one day old baby, who hadn't even been named yet, killed in the attacks by Israel.

I cannot comprehend. I cannot comprehend how a nation such as Israel can go about bombing and killing innocent people, while the whole world remains silent. I cannot comprehend how we can manage to see images of young children being killed, their bodies in the hospital beds, their mothers crying over the loss of their children and husbands at once, and not feel their pain, or shed tears for them. I feel such intense pain in my heart right now, seeing these images, and knowing its real. I feel so much pain thinking how we are all having fun and enjoying life, while there are so many people in this world who are losing their lives, for no reason, for committing no crime. I cannot help but feel that if these victims were 'someone else', or if Israel was 'someone else', the global response would have been completely different.

Just now, they were showing a women and her children in Lebanon, telling their story. The family was trying to flee the city, but the moment they tried to leave their home, the Israeli soldiers started shooting at them. There was a wounded man outside, so they got scared and ran back inside the house. These people are citizens of America too.

My heart is breaking for all these people. For the past few days, everytime I watch the news, I find myself crying. My husband constantly tells me to turn it off, because he can't bear to see it. The sight of severely wounded children breaks him down to tears. I can't stand this. I can't stand these horrible baseless wars. I can't stand to see all of these innocent people being killed mercilessly. It is so painful to watch...so painful, and if you think about it, the pain we feel in watching it is nothing. Imagine the people who are feeling it. Imagine the mother who just gave birth to her baby, was excited to choose a name for him and take him home to her family, only to have him killed the next day. Imagine the women who lost their husbands and children at the same time. Imagine the men who lost their mothers and wives. Imagine the people who are left homeless because of the bombs that destroyed their towns. The mass graves they were showing on CNN were unbearable to watch. I cannot imagine being in such a situation, yet the fact is, so many innocent people, innocent families like ourselves are going through this intense pain. It is something I can't understand. All I know is that I am sick of war. So many innocent lives are being wasted and lost for no reason. Sometimes I wish war didn't exist. I wish we lived in a perfect world. Unfortunately, we don't. I wish there weren't so many cruel human beings in this world. I wish.

It is no wonder there is so much hate being spread in this world. The reason is so clear. When children grow up in such war zones, what else would come to their minds? Any human being would hate a nation who brought such destruction to their families, villages, towns, cities, countries. Any one. Any human being would hate a nation, when all they see from their birth, and throughout their childhood is their family members being killed, their homes destroyed, their cities destroyed, and ending up living in refugee camps because of it their whole lives. I wish all of this crap would just stop, and that the evil governments of this world would learn to leave innocent civilians alone.

[Catty1]

Our prime minister in Canada has angered MANY, if not MOST, Canadians by calling Israel's actions "a measured response." And that is a direct quote.

And now, apparently, Israel is stopping the shelling until they 'investigate' the destruction of the town you mentioned.

Investigate? Watch the video footage, that'll tell you all you need to know.

And all the UN observer posts gone...after Israeli bombs destroyed one, and killed all four neutral people, including a Canadian.

Being neutral or civilian doesn't seem to much matter any more.

Popcornbird - you are so right about the children. I wish we could just make them all safe and teach them realities that don't involve revenge...and we have to watch what we teach our children at home.

Please take care of yourself - you can only change this by starting with yourself and your own children, if and when you have them.

I never quite understood the huge adoption of Vietnamese children and babies after the war with the US - now I do understand part of it. Rescue them from learning hate, as much as possible...

[DrKym]

Candace,
you know I love you so I will say this only once, Hate is taught at home. By the most "innocent " comments. i.e. oh no honey don't ask him to your bar mitzvah he isn't Jewish. Or honey I am sure Ibrahim doesn't want to come to your communion. Insert names religions here. I teach Religion ancient and Modern. Guess what? they all believe in the same basic things. Love one another. Do not hurt those smaller or less fortunate. Someone/thing(s) is in control of this all, we can control our path but not our purpose. Sweetness and light at some point (insert name here ...heaven, Nirvana, Summerglade, Valhalla) or torture and despair, (again insert name of choice) No one not a one knows if we are right, we won't know until we have passed and learned for ourselves. Therefore we all need to accomadate the fact that we are ALL right. Tolerance is a dish best served among many. Hate is a dish that only feeds the dying and the dead.

[Catty1]

Oh, I know you do...hence I also wrote to PCB:

I wish we could just make them all safe and teach them realities that don't involve revenge...and we have to watch what we teach our children at home.

Please take care of yourself - you can only change this by starting with yourself and your own children, if and when you have them.

When I was 19, I had a fellow interested in me; he was of another faith...never mind that my own household didn't follow the faith into which they were born - but heck, we hadn't even really DATED - and my mom got alarmed and told me, "He can never marry you!" (Because of HIS faith, not mine...she said he wouldn't be allowed to.)

Hello? No one was anywhere NEAR talking about that. But ignorance - at the very least - does begin at home, and hatred is just further down the same road.

hugs!

[zoey]

..::HUGS::..
I know what you mean about the news. I rarely can watch it anymore. I still cry for the hundreds of dead on the bombed train in India. It's horrifying...

[Karen]

I never quite understood the huge adoption of Vietnamese children and babies after the war with the US - now I do understand part of it. Rescue them from learning hate, as much as possible...

I think that had more to do with the number of children left parentless by the war, or parents displaced and unable to care for their children, and the extreme prejudice mixed-race babies (fathered by American servicemen) faced in their culture.

Popcornbird, I know it us awful, unbearable to watch.

All that we, as human beings of conscience can do, is to vote for policticians who do not preach hate or run for office ourselves, work in our own communities and the world to try to eliminate the causes of hate, and educate everyone we meet that hate is not the way the world should be. These last two week have been awful, awful, awful. The situation is so complicated between Hezzbollah and Lebanon and Israel, and I feel the most sorry for the innocents who get hurt and killed in any war.

Anyone, if they try hard enough, can find a reason to hate someone else, and consider them less worthy human beings. The harder part is convincing people not to hate.

[RICHARD]

Yep,

It is terrible to see what ball bearings stuck inside a 50 lb. warhead does when it lands.


It's really awful to think that these missiles are tossed off without any thought as to where they will land.

It's really awful that terrorists hide near homes, hospitals and any area where
innocent people live.


Back in the first week of July a rocket was shot off and hit the beach in Israel
before all this began.

Three soldiers were kidnapped from their posts-They were just doing their jobs.

Funny, the people that start trouble are never held accountable.

Most of the news coverage is pretty bad.

It never explains that the terrorists are using people as pawns.
It never explains why 1400 rockets have been shot over the border.
It never explains who began the whole mess.


I was watching a report where a small child was in a hospital.

The parent was screaming about the phosphorus being used in the bombs dropped from airplanes.

The problem?

No phosphorus in any of the air dropped munitions.

(One of the funniest things abuout war is that there are rules as to what can be used..)


NO ONE HAS COMPLAINED ABOUT THE BALL BEARINGS-WHICH ARE A HUGE NO-NO as far as the 'rules'...

I guess it's OK for some godless cowards to use a weapon like that....
then complain about the retaliation.

[Randi]

Popcornbird, it IS horrible!! I just can't bear to watch much of it, but what I have seen is very cruel! I think as long as people have the attitude that they want revenge, it will never stop.

[JenBKR]

I agree PCB, I can hardly watch anymore. I have been turning the channel lately, because I just sit there in shock. It makes me sick to think of the innocents being killed, especially the children.

[BOBS DAD]

I AM SORRY YOU ARE GRIEVING SO.

All WAR IS HELL and so terribly unfair to the thousands of innocents caught in the battle. AND SENSELESS - Yes.

We Americans have romanticized war in movies and stories so much so that we actually believe that "only' the enemy is ever defeated and that innocent civilians are left alone - in fact, treated well. But having had family members fight in WWII, The Korean War and Vietnam, I can say that I know that not to be totally true. I believe it is "generally" the intent of the ground soldiers and actual combatants, but things go awry and plans get changed and decisions are made on moments notice. It is very, very, very sad.

I don't know the answer for a solution to the violence in the Middle East. Obviously. I am not alone, as no one has seemed to be able to resolve these differences for the last several thousand years. It is a terrible, terrible tradegy. It is a very complex situation, complicated even further by religious differences. Additionally, when war is being waged in a metropolitan area and the combatants are mixed amongst the civilians, the results are diastrous.

I hope and pray that things improve and that a cessation to WAR is TOMORROW!

[jackie]

I cannot help but feel that if these victims were 'someone else', or if Israel was 'someone else', the global response would have been completely different.

PCB, your post made me cry and the above excerpt sums ups my exact feelings about the whole situation.

I am so angry that the American and especially the Canadian governments are not condemning Israels attacks.