Spy and Spirit # 3

Small. Monstrous. Painful. Human

All I really gotta say is that if that's how our people gonna get down, how we ever gonna get up? 

-Nas

Please stop flying your flags around American cities trying to rally support for your side. It's not going to add glory or dignity to the coming slaughter. It's just going to prolong and spread it.   

The way Hamas attacked Israeli civilians last Saturday was reminiscent of the Islamic State. But I don't remember reading many reports of IS specifically targeting children and infants. This is new. What Hamas did was more akin to Orcs - the footsoldier monsters in the Lord of the Rings books that were bred from elves that were tortured and mutilated. They kill everything. That’s how they were made. 

This is what happens when you create hell on Earth in your backyard. You can't stoke the fires and be surprised when demons come skulking around. They have desires of their own. They're riddled with pain, and they wish to share it. Their wish was granted with surprising ease.  

The 2023 siege of Gaza will be remembered for a thousand years. A curse on both your houses. None of you are good. You're all evil.

We…are all complicit. 

This is spy - the shame and the indignity of being creatures of the material world itself. 

This is spirit - the freedom from thought and feeling provided by oblivion and death.

—

FOLLOW ON:

The argument is always "They do this. They believe that. We're righteous. They're murderers. They have no humanity. They never had any right to live here. We're going to make them pay."

We've seen this movie before. It never has a good ending. It's chauvinism, ethno-nationalism, and religious supremacy through and through. It's small. It's painful. It's human. It's monstrous. But God wants it! 

This sucks! It sucks for the people who have no stake in this conflict - who don't belong to one of the Semitic religions or numerous ethnicities. It sucks most for the locals. 

What is to be gained by another siege and bombing campaign? You’ll never kill all your enemies. Revenge is not righteous. Revenge will destroy us from within.

Perhaps it's time for a change of strategy and tactics. Fly C-130s over Gaza and drop thousands of tons of food, water, medicine, and blankets on the enclave. They'll never see it coming! You will confuse the absolute shit out of them! 

I am aware that idealist demonstrations of love confronting hate are naive, but it may buy time, and change perspectives. At the very least, it will be a short-term policy departure from the past fifty years. 

The prevailing policy of violence and containment is what created the resolve and ingenuity of this terror group. We don't win by exterminating the enemy. We win by draining their resolve.