First of all, the percentages about proportions of civilian casualties (unintended, non-combatant deaths) are an inadequate part of a larger picture. If you would examine the total number of civilian deaths in war (compare WWI with the Gulf War, for example), I know that you would fine that the ascendancy of modern technology in war has led to a drastic decrease in non-intended deaths.

I’ll state it differently. Instead of lining people up across fields and shooting until one side is gone, planes now make it possible to guide weapons in an extraordinarily precise manner. Do pilots make errors? Of course. However, your statistics about percentages and proportions are tremendously misleading and would suggest that civilian deaths are on the RISE, when any serious-minded study would tell you that we are vastly better off, both attacker and defender, now than in the 1700s.

Now, whether or not war should be “rethought” is an ethical question best left to your own personal conscience. I would recommend though that you make absolutely certain that you know what you are talking about. I would not want to be responsible if I instituted a pacifist foreign policy and incurred all sorts of attacks from foreign aggressors. I would not want to tell Americans that my ethics demanded their death. I would not want to say that, especially if I was wrong about my ethics.

I would also recommend that you drop the link to Iraq Body Count. This website has been discredited tremendously and is not considered credible by those who would bother to look behind that nice running total.

Stephen Spruiell from the National Review Online does a fantastic job of demonstrating the duplicity and errors that are so prevelant in IBC. You can read his review here: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/spruiell200507260924.asp

just wanted to say it’s great to see someone who’s interested in social justice issues attending the church now. we were in need of someone to get things rolling on that. there are more than a few people at mosaic who are interested in making things happen on that front. don’t be too discouraged about the reaction about the tenncare stuff. i know that many of us haven’t been in TN for too long and aren’t real familiar with the issue. but the interest is there, so please keep on trucking. i look forward to meeting you and mindy in a couple of weeks, and maybe we can discuss some of these things in person.

have a lovely evening.