America, God is Watching

March 2006 Newsletter

We have reached the three year anniversary of shock and awe––the 2003 Pentagon light show that served to parade America's inexorable military might before the rest of the globe. The preemptive invasion of Iraq toppled the exhausted dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and set the stage for the ensuing occupation. Like all brutal occupations, this one has been no different––it has been riddled with human failure, and it has resulted in the untold suffering of the world's most vulnerable citizens––its children. America has turned its back on God. This can be seen in many ways––especially in our Nation's indifference to this horrendous war. What has been cloaked over and over again in the guise of peace––and what has been paid for with the blood of babies––is the real shock and awe at work in the Middle East. America, God is watching.

Information Clearinghouse reports––in addition to the more than 2,300 Americans who have died in Iraq since the start of the war––that more than 250,000 Iraqi civilians have also died. These poor victims are the collateral damage of the Bush Administration's controversial War on Terror.

How many of the slain in Iraq are children? Only God can say for sure because the numbers are intentionally under-reported (or worse, unreported) in the Western media––especially the American media. C'mon America, is a high body count the prerequisite we need to to begin questioning this madness? Isn't the suffering of a single child enough to make us say no to the mindless killing? I dare say it should be. If you call yourself a Christian, it better be. The silence surrounding this great injustice has become deafening to those of us who are interested in the truth. So many innocent men, women and children––indeed so many helpless families (no different than our own)––have perished simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time––simply because they were born in Iraq.

The silence of this crime is deafening, but the cries of the poor Iraqi children do not go unheard. In fact, the tiny voices of these innocent victims resonate before the very throne of God. God's word tells us that he will allow such terrible acts of injustice to go on for a space of time so the fullness of his righteous purpose can be brought in––a purpose that we, his children, cannot begin to fathom. Each innocent life further tips the scales of his perfect justice and brings ever closer the innevitable release of his great wrath.

America, God is watching. Let us not forget what is at stake as we strive to endure what will soon become the greatest struggle of the ages. Where do you want to spend eternity when your time here has come to an end? The simple fact of the matter is that those of us who choose to put country––any country––before God will not spend eternity with God. This is precisely what is meant when the bible tells us to "come out of the world." This is what Jesus meant when he said, "my Kingdom is not of this earth." Do not make the mistake of getting caught up in what some would have you believe is a righteous cause. There is absolutely nothing righteous about killing innocent people––no end justifies this terrible means.

The ideas contained in the passages above are repeated over and over again in Christ's teachings. The biblical record is clear. Any lesser message––even a message that attempts to justify killing in the name of peace––is one that has been convoluted. No person has the right to play God and take another human life––all life comes from God, and only he has the authority to take it away. Anyone who says its okay to kill innocent children is a liar––and lying has little to do with Christ. The vile words that seem to flow like honey from the lips of those ordering the attacks in Iraq and elsewhere in the world are filled with venom. We must pray for our leaders. If their souls are to be saved, they must turn away from what they are doing.

America, God is watching. How much more evidence do you require? Do you not see the blood on our hands? Our tax dollars are being spent to kill children half a world away.

USA in Bible Prophecy feels that Charlotte Aldebron––a 13-year-old from Maine––speaks with a keen understanding of the truth concerning the high crimes perpetrated by the US in the Middle East. In fact, she explains these things far better than we can. The following transcript is from the speech she gave at a peace rally in her home state three years ago. Please America, let us not forget about the innocent children who have been killed and mutilated as a direct result of the US invasion of Iraq. An invasion that we now know had absolutely nothing to do WMD or 9-11.

What About the Iraqi Children?

by Charlotte Aldebron
March 6, 2003

When people think about bombing Iraq, they see a picture in their heads of Saddam Hussein in a military uniform, or maybe soldiers with big black mustaches carrying guns, or the mosaic of George Bush Senior on the lobby floor of the Al-Rashid Hotel with the word "criminal." But guess what? More than half of Iraq’s 24 million people are children under the age of 15. That’s 12 million kids. Kids like me. Well, I’m almost 13, so some are a little older, and some a lot younger, some boys instead of girls, some with brown hair, not red. But kids who are pretty much like me just the same. So take a look at me—a good long look. Because I am what you should see in your head when you think about bombing Iraq. I am what you are going to destroy.

If I am lucky, I will be killed instantly, like the three hundred children murdered by your "smart" bombs in a Baghdad bomb shelter on February 16, 1991. The blast caused a fire so intense that it flash-burned outlines of those children and their mothers on the walls; you can still peel strips of blackened skin—souvenirs of your victory—from the stones.

But maybe I won’t be lucky and I’ll die slowly, like 14-year-old Ali Faisal, who right now is in the "death ward" of the Baghdad children’s hospital. He has malignant lymphoma—cancer—caused by the depleted uranium in your Gulf War missiles. Or maybe I will die painfully and needlessly like18-month-old Mustafa, whose vital organs are being devoured by sand fly parasites. I know it’s hard to believe, but Mustafa could be totally cured with just $25 worth of medicine, but there is none of this medicine because of your sanctions.

Or maybe I won’t die at all but will live for years with the psychological damage that you can’t see from the outside, like Salman Mohammed, who even now can’t forget the terror he lived through with his little sisters when you bombed Iraq in 1991. Salman’s father made the whole family sleep in the same room so that they would all survive together, or die together. He still has nightmares about the air raid sirens.

Or maybe I will be orphaned like Ali, who was three when you killed his father in the Gulf War. Ali scraped at the dirt covering his father’s grave every day for three years calling out to him, "It’s all right Daddy, you can come out now, the men who put you here have gone away." Well, Ali, you’re wrong. It looks like those men are coming back.

Or I maybe I will make it in one piece, like Luay Majed, who remembers that the Gulf War meant he didn’t have to go to school and could stay up as late as he wanted. But today, with no education, he tries to live by selling newspapers on the street.

Imagine that these are your children—or nieces or nephews or neighbors. Imagine your son screaming from the agony of a severed limb, but you can’t do anything to ease the pain or comfort him. Imagine your daughter crying out from under the rubble of a collapsed building, but you can’t get to her. Imagine your children wandering the streets, hungry and alone, after having watched you die before their eyes.

This is not an adventure movie or a fantasy or a video game. This is reality for children in Iraq. Recently, an international group of researchers went to Iraq to find out how children there are being affected by the possibility of war. Half the children they talked to said they saw no point in living any more. Even really young kids knew about war and worried about it. One 5-year-old, Assem, described it as "guns and bombs and the air will be cold and hot and we will burn very much." Ten-year-old Aesar had a message for President Bush: he wanted him to know that "A lot of Iraqi children will die. You will see it on TV and then you will regret."

Back in elementary school I was taught to solve problems with other kids not by hitting or name-calling, but by talking and using "I" messages. The idea of an "I" message was to make the other person understand how bad his or her actions made you feel, so that the person would sympathize with you and stop it. Now I am going to give you an "I" message. Only it’s going to be a "We" message. "We" as in all the children in Iraq who are waiting helplessly for something bad to happen. "We" as in the children of the world who don’t make any of the decisions but have to suffer all the consequences. "We" as in those whose voices are too small and too far away to be heard.

We feel scared when we don’t know if we’ll live another day.

We feel angry when people want to kill us or injure us or steal our future.

We feel sad because all we want is a mom and a dad who we know will be there the next day.

And, finally, we feel confused—because we don’t even know what we did wrong.