Lines

I read this article in the NY Times today. A US soldier was sentenced to life in prison for raping a fourteen year old girl and murdering her and her family. That is horrific. However, I wonder where we draw the line. The rape, certainly, would not have been allowed as an act of war - however killing those people was not necessarily a crime. If those people had had weapons. If they had been "enemy combatants" their death would have been a credit to the soldier, not the cause of him spending his life in jail. Where do we draw the line between acts of war and war crimes. This soldier, this time, chose to kill out of anger instead of following an order. Perhaps that anger made it a crime. Is an emotional response a crime?

Isn't all war a crime. War involves killing people. Most countries have said that killing people is wrong. There are exceptions, depending on your country - the death penalty, war, honor killings etc. How can we, as a society, legitimately say it's okay in this situation to kill a person but in this one you are liable to be punished under law - even threatened with your own death. What sense does that make? All people's lives are valuable. I believe in a God that loves ALL people, no matter what they do, what they have done, or who they are; I cannot condone the killing of anyone. We have created these somewhat arbitrary laws that say what is a crime and what is an act of war. In the US, we decry honor killings as horrible and inhumane and clearly against the law. Yet, we still practice the death penalty, which is often wrong and very racist and classist. How do we think we have the morality to judge other people's culture and tell them that what they are doing is wrong because it violates our sense of "ethics."

Yet, all this being said, I have never lived in a situation where my life or the lives of my family and friends were threatened. Perhaps, if I had lived in such a situation, I would see war differently. I would like to think that I would rise to the occasion. If I were living in a state of war, reacting in a violent manner might make sense. I would like to hope that I would not respond in such a way. I would like to hope that my faith in humanity and my belief in God's justice would allow me to live peacefully no matter the situation. I have never been tested in that way.