I'm neither a pacifist nor a Christian, but one of the most difficult things for me to reconcile in my mind are the bible-thumping politicians who don't see the irony in their "Jesus guided" missles.
Hazel Dickens, an Appalachian singer, understood it when she wrote, "Will Jesus Wash the Bloodstains from Your Hands," when reflecting on the Vietnam war:
I saw a grey haired mother crying softly in her door
As she gazed upon the pathway where he'd return no more
Oh lord I'd love to hold my baby just once more
And lord I hope I never live to see another war
Will Jesus wash the bloodstains from your hands
Will he welcome you into that peaceful land
Will he forgive the killings, the wars you have planned
Will Jesus wash the bloodstains from your hands?
As good a musical question as can be asked on a day when deaths of American service men and women reach the 3500 mark. And that doesn't include the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqui citizens who have died, nor the deaths of US contractors. Nor does it reckon the thousand of lives which are irreprably changed because of physical and mental casualties.
I don't know which is more difficult to take, Dick Cheney's dark cynicism, or George Bush's cocksure heavenly inspiration.
And from David Rovics, another musical question.
