Lunchtime In Iraq

During lunch today I stumbled across an amazing blog entry - Michael Yon is an independant reporter who is embedded with American troops in Iraq. So what's it like to come under fire? Take a few moments to read a recent entry called Gates of Fire where he chronicles - both in writing and in photos - a close encounter from just last Thursday.

Couple of thoughts and questions which struck me as I read:

1. Yon's writing is riveting, and it's nice to see a journalist who actually respects the soldiers he is covering. If nothing else, his writings convey the sense that there is another side to what you hear in the mainstream media.
   
   
2. I am extremely impressed by the service, sacrifice, and restraint - in other words, the professionalism and humanity - of our American soldiers. Read the article to see what I mean; then go read Josephus' Jewish Wars as he describes the methods of the ancient Romans. Now, you tell me: how is it possible to fight a cleaner war?
   
   
3. What kind of religious teaching allows/condones/produces the brutality seen in the Iraqi insurgency? What kind of religious teaching demands the kind of conduct exemplified by the Americans in this article? I would assert that for all it's modernity, the ethics behind the Geneva Convention are directly dependent on the morality of a distinctly Christian worldview.
   
   
4. And speaking of ethics, how about this quote from the end of Yon's post:
   
   Over lunch with Chaplain Wilson and our two battalion surgeons, Major Brown and Captain Warr, there was much discussion about the "ethics" of war, and contention about why we afford top-notch medical treatment to terrorists. The treatment terrorists get here is better and more expensive than what many Americans or Europeans can get.
   
   "That's the difference between the terrorists and us," Chaplain Wilson kept saying. "Don't you understand? That's the difference."

So what do you think? Read Yon's article for yourself and then feel free to respond...