Thou shall not kill

FUNG Chi Wood (http://fungchiwood.com/) 
writes just before the possible war
20 March 2003 Hong Kong time 03:00
(six hours before the end of the 48 hours referendum)
　

As a man of 46 this is my first time to encounter a war so close to me. Am I lucky enough, since so many have been suffered from wars? After learning the cruelty and insanity of Second World War, knowing the horrible genocides, mass destruction of buildings and cities, the most inhuman and absolute heart-breaking nuclear bomb explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I thought human race should never start any wars again. But I was wrong.  

We see human lives are so cheap, so dispensable, we do not have the minimum respect of the very fundamental human rights of a person, that is, the right of survival. What a pity! We claim the human race is in progress, but we are just improving the quality and quantity of our weapons so that we can kill more people (in order to protect ourselves?), but not improving our altitude towards lives. There are numerous sound reasons to attack Iraq, and all these arguments assumes that human lives are dispensable, they are means to our ends. Let us don’t forget, killings and wars will be checked and stopped and punished in one form or another, because they are against nature, human laws, all teachings, all religions.  

Americans like to say ‘God bless America’. How can God bless a nation who kills? How can God bless people who are doing against His wishes? God creates lives, and Americans destroy them. These is no a single reason to kill, in God’s eyes. Their war on Iraq will be stopped, with very painful consequences. There is no love, no pity, no forgiveness in killings, there are only hatred, madness, greedy, violence in killings. There is no reason to kill, especially for people who believe in God of love. The sixth of the Ten Commandments says ‘Thou shall not kill’ (Exodus 5:13), now we change it into ‘Thou shall not kill WITHOUT CAUSE’, how cunning we are! It will be inconceivable if Jesus allow killing in certain circumstances. We excuse ourselves to kill because we can find the reasons to justify our sinful acts. We say murderers should be given capital punishment and therefore we can kill criminals. We say we can kill our enemies in the battle fields and therefore we can kill them even they are unarmed, surrendered, and even civilians are killed because they help the soldiers of the opposite side. In wars we can kill anybody because there is no police, no law, no court, we can kill as we wish, since killing others is the only thing we do in wars. For civilians being killed, we just feel sorry, we excuse ourselves that they are unlucky to be killed by 'accidents' and they should find their way to escape, it is their faults and not ours. Why we feel at least a little sense of guilt to kill civilians, and enjoy ourselves to kill soldiers? Are they not both human? Killings make us mad and always and every times, civilians are not protected and just killed, since we aim at conquer and killing in wars, not saving.  We are deceived that the more we kill the more successful we are, the more we kill the more reward we can get, without fear of facing any consequences. This insanity happens in wars.  God not just bless America, He bless every nations, including Iraq.

There are many reasons to stop the war on Iraq. Unless we treasure lives, protect human lives, these reasons can find their ways later to support wars. People will find reasons to kill if they find there are mass destructive weapons in Iraq, if UN agrees to launch war, if Iraq not cooperative within a time limit, if… killings find their support easily, if killing is still an option in our minds. Some people say the countries now opposing the war because of their interest are not addressed, if they can share the interest from the war they may support it. I hope this is not true, but I think this is true to certain extend. People do not want to kill because they cannot gain interest, not because they treasure others’ lives. How sad! Many countries opposing war this time were keen supporters of the war against Afghanistan in 2001, they don’t care how many deaths how many wounded how many refugees caused by the war, they just care their aims. They are not anti-war, they will engage in another war later. As France says they will join the war if Iraq uses chemical/biological weapons. What if US uses these weapons, or even nuclear ones, will France fight against US? Why France at present can tolerate US continue to use depleted uranium weapons, which have long time radioactive harmful effect similar to nuclear weapons? We are all hypocrites, double-standard, self-interested, let us all confess and repent.

Unless we care about lives, unless we promise not to kill, unless we punish any killing, unless we prevent any killing, there will still be ‘justifiable’ killings, there will be wars, there will be genocides. 

Unless we start to stop to produce weapons, otherwise we will use them for our own causes. Until now, US does not promise not to use nuclear weapons against Iraq, it is easy to understand, US owns them, weapons are for usage, not for display. Why money is used for killings, not for saving lives? It is very simple, even children know the correct option, but adults make things complicated and don’t choose the simple way. Some even say, wars against Iraq could attain peace!! What kind of peace will that be, just peace in US, how about peace in Iraq? How can killings generate peace? Killings and wars can only make things worse, deepen hatred, broaden conflict, breed more killings and wars.  

Let the Americans, the British, people who loves killings and wars, and those who think killing is still an option to choose, to re-think an old teaching of one of the great religion, that is, ‘Thou shall not kill’. This old commandment is never old, it is always new indeed, especially when the world is now facing the breaking of a war in this new century. How long deaths till people know, that we should not kill in any circumstances.

No war, no killing, always, everywhere!