From Joan Chissiter, an infuriating story, but one I didn’t hear here, but the rest of the world isn’t in a country led by empire thugs turning a blind eye, and doing all they can to keep things like this out of the news:

What the Rest of the World Watched on Inauguration Day

There are 54 million people in Iraq. Over half of them are under the age of 15. Of the over 100,000 civilians dead in this war, then, over half of them are children. We are killing children. The children are our enemy. And we are defeating them.

“I’ll tell you why I voted for George Bush,” a friend of mine said. “I voted for George Bush because he had the courage to do what Al Gore and John Kerry would never have done.”

I’ve been thinking about that one.

Osama Bin Laden is still alive. Sadam Hussein is still alive. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is still alive. Baghdad, Mosul and Fallujah are burning. But my government has the courage to kill children or their parents. And I’m supposed to be impressed.

Right to life. Respect for life. SANCTITY of life. The Religious Right should be ashamed for keeping their vision so insanely and tragically narrow, and to think for one moment that a President— who so clearly WANTS war (“I’m a War president”) despite what he says, all his actions show that war is his “manly option”, and selfish, nationalist, economic interests come first , defended by deadly force— that this president is a “man of God”, I shudder at what has happened to the image of Jesus as the Word made flesh. This is NOT what Jesus would do, or is calling us to do. We MUST not participate in EVIL, for that is what this is, plain and simple.

In Iraq, for every dead U.S. soldier, there are 14 other deaths, 93 percent of them are civilian. But those things happen in war, the story says. It’s all for a greater good, we have to remember. It’s all to free them. It’s all being done to spread “liberty.”

I also shudder when I hear Bush talk of “freedom and liberty”. The hollow-ness of those words from his mouth.

A Benedictine Sister of Erie, Sister Joan is a best-selling author and well-known international lecturer. She is founder and executive director of Benetvision: A Resource and Research Center for Contemporary Spirituality, and past president of the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Sister Joan has been recognized by universities and national organizations for her work for justice, peace and equality for women in the Church and society. She is an active member of the International Peace Council.