Readers know that I mostly am concerned on this blog with matters concerning the Anglican Communion, the current unpleasantness and other oddities of life in this fellowship. I delight in being part of the Anglican Communion and am saddened by the madness that seems to have engulfed us.
Every once and a while, however, I am reminded that Anglicans do not have a special franchise on madness. Looking beyond Anglican-land there is another shore, noted for amber waves of grain, purple mountains, and spacious skies and fruited plains. Actually, there are several such shores, lands blessed by rich history, languages, peoples and customs.
According to the BBC, it turns out that one such land, The United States, sent 110,000 AK47's to another such land,Iraq, for the purpose of helping people there restore their country to a semblance of peace. The US sent them, but seems not to have much of an idea just where they went. So, out there in Iraq there is now this river of AK47's, and an abundance of potential users. AK47's don't have many uses other than to kill people. Even when used by people only interested in defense, they are generous purveyors of death. How does one lose 110,000 licenses to kill?
We live in a strange world, where lands and peoples rich in history and culture are subjected to greater and greater madness by friends and foes alike. Maybe we would be better off if people simply STOPPED trying to make other people better by such strange means as supplying 110,000 AK47's for "peacekeeping" purposes and then losing them. When it all gets out of hand there is nothing left but the road to madness.
All of this is appalling, and saddening. I delight in my country and am saddened by the madness that we seem to have let loose. What began as a root-out-the-evil sort of campaign, seemingly pure and undefiled, has now become a quagmire of guns for cheap and a militia for every neighborhood.
Back here in Anglican-land - Come to think of it, maybe we would be better off if even here in Anglican-land people simply worked at minding their own business a bit, or at least resisted the temptation to help out by sending in purple shirted and other warriors for spiritual battle.
I was so disgusted when I read about this on the NYT on-line edition this morning. This administration has not been held accountable for anything and they just continue to operate in the most inept fashion. The Congress really needs to take charge.
ReplyDeleteIt's called a "free" market.
ReplyDeleteJust to really confound the madness, the AK-47 is a fully automatic rifle and as such Americans are not permitted to own them. So we send 110,000 of them to Iraq, weapons we would not trust in the hands of Texans.
ReplyDeleteOK, in the case of the diocese of Dallas, maybe Iraq is safer, but still!
FWIW
jimB
Who makes these guns? What companies manufacture them? Can we stop them from making them? Can legislation keep companies from makeing such things?
ReplyDeleteAs it happens, just yesterday I preached a sermon the point of which was, "Mind your own business," about this very thing. Over at Episcopal Majority, Rev. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton puts it well: "We do not have to be a community of like-minded people. We can just agree to serve." Too many people trying to create the outcome; not enough people paying attention to what they are supposed to be doing, it seems to me.
ReplyDeleteThe AK-47 is a Kalishnikov design. I am not an expert but I believe they are made under license in both the Chech Republic and Ukraine?
ReplyDeleteSo, no, Congress cannot stop their being made.
FWIW
jimB
This sounds like an excellent policy for firefighting - whenever there is a fire, simply send in more petrol! In the vain hope that an excess of petrol might smother the fire and put it out? Who on earth thought that sending more weapons to arm the civilians would reduce (???) the violence in Iraq? As if the USA itself is such a model example of low (?) violence in one of the highest gun owning nations on earth. Here in Australia our national government decided to de-arm the population after one devastating event in Port Arthur about 11 years ago - with the result that the rate of deaths and injuries from firarms has actually reduced - now who would have thought?
ReplyDeleteIf this is going to be the USA's policy to reduce the activity of insurgents in Iraq, then Australia must withdraw its troops from there immediately. You have just increased the level of risk to our men and women serving there by an order of magnitude.
Cain didn't own a firearm... Those bent on bloodshed will use whatever means necessary to affect their lust for blood.
ReplyDeleteI am going to guess that anon's inane comment on Cain is an attempt to 'defend' the US rules permitting the ownership of firearms. Cain also killed one and only one person. A Shia or Suni fanatic in Iraq, properly equipped is a lot more deadly.
ReplyDeleteShipping 110,000 fully automatic weapons into a strife torn country where the main reason we cannot call it a civil war is that its anarchy, is stupid regardless of what our own laws about gun ownership permit us. We wont allow ourselves to own Kalashnikov designs, because they are completely about combat. Why in the world would we want people who want to kill us to have them?
sheesh!
FWIW
jimB