Valentine's Day bombings

One of the beauties of travel is becoming familiar with new places and people. This age of bombings changes how it feels to know so many places. First thing this morning was the news of a bombing that killed the former prime minister of Lebanon, and an email from our friends in Beirut whose doors were blown open by the blast saying they were ok. Then the news of the three explosions in the Philippines. The bombing site in Manila looked familiar, and so it was. I was there not long ago. Likewise the site in Davao. I have not been to the bombing site in General Santos City because the workshop I was to lead there moved to Davao after threats from Abu Sayyaf, the group claiming responsibility for these latest bombings. The world is a much smaller place than we sometimes realize. The danger of relationships around the world is that the world news suddenly becomes local. Yesterday we had email with pictures from Jeff, our former Indonesia colleague, letting us know how it is going in Banda Aceh recreating water systems and latrines after the tsunami. We are tied together by our relationships in ways that make complacency impossible, and which tug at our hearts in ways the world news didn't 30 years ago. After a day like this one, ignorance is tempting.

The latest in Iraq

When one invades a country, overthrows its rulers and then disbands its police force, obligations are created. As a pacifist I would like nothing better than to have the US immediately withdraw from Iraq, but to do so would be cowardly at best. What we destroyed must be replaced, and this specifically includes a police force. The elections are a step in the right direction, moving repsonsibility and authority to Iraq's citizens, but until a proper police force can be recruited and trained it would be irresponsible for the US to leave. Mennonites remember vividly what happened after the Russian revolution when bandit gangs controlled the country. For the US to visit that on Iraq would be terrible.