Look for ways to end the war

Editor:
These wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing us far too many lives (as if one isn’t too many), and far too much money — money we can’t afford. We’re spending billions of dollars a week killing people and destroying property, and what are we accomplishing?
How can we ever expect to defeat al-Qaida and the Taliban militarily when they’re blending themselves in with the civilian population, and new terrorists are being trained all the time, all over the world?
There has to be a better way.
To begin with, why are we even there?
But now that we are, wouldn’t it be possible for both sides to stop the killing, at least long enough to try and reach a peaceful solution by sitting down at the table of reason and talking with each other, identifying our differences and trying to find some common ground? If that shows signs of progress, we could extrapolate out from there.
Unrealistic? Maybe. Naive? Perhaps. But what harm could it do to try? It just has to beat sending another 40,000 to 80,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to kill more people in a futile attempt to win an unwinnable war.
Our hearts have grown cold. Killing seems to mean little or nothing to us anymore — the infanticide of tearing little babies from their mother’s wombs; the vengeance of strapping people down and injecting chemicals into their bloodstream until their heart stops beating and they can’t breathe anymore; the illegal entry into other sovereign nations, murdering innocent people along with those we’re trying to kill.
What, then, is the answer?
First of all we need to lay aside our self-importance, replace it with humility and admit that we can’t do it alone. We need a higher intelligence to guide us.
But how can He, and why should He? We’ve pretty much booted Him out of our lives — out of our public buildings, out of our schools, out of some of our churches.
We’ve even taken away his birthright.
We need to invite him back, get down on our knees with a Bible rather than in a foxhole with a machine gun, and sit down at the table of reason with those we call our enemies.
It just might work.
Francis Richter
Weslaco