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As a parent of young ones, I find pictures like this especially disturbing (warning: it's disturbing) (I'm not implying that people w/o children cannot also be disturbed by images such as this).

As the caption notes, the car was fired upon when it failed to stop (presumably at a checkpoint). So the driver (father?) must have been a suicide bomber and they got what they deserved, huh?

Leaving aside the question as to whether the girl got what she deserved, we don't know that the father got what he deserved.

I've taken defensive driving several times. In each class the topic of road rage is covered. The example given is usually how to respond to someone who's trying to drive over the posted speed limit. Many people will take it upon themselves to act as speed enforcer i.e. camp out in the left (passing lane), etc.

The instructor points out something which applies to many human interactions - we don't know why that person is doing what they're doing. Maybe he's rushing his pregnant wife to the hospital. Or his child with a 107F fever, etc. Or maybe he likes to drive fast. But who cares - we don't know.

Applying this to the war zone which is Iraq expands the variables.

It appears to be night in the picture (you can see the shadows cast by the flashlights). Maybe the driver didn't see the checkpoint. Maybe his kids were screaming in the back seat and he couldn't concentrate (if Canada ever invades the US and occupies Austin my kids are in a world of hurt if that's the case).

And maybe, just maybe the driver was a suicide bomber.

BUT who cares? There's one more orphaned child in the world who saw her parents die. Maybe she'll grow up and transcend this horror. Maybe she'll even dedicate her life to peace, doing her unique part to finding ways to prevent future horrors like this from occurring.

Or maybe in ten to fifteen years she'll immigrate to the US as a college student, walk into the "Buy Lots of Stuff" mall in Peoria, USA and detonate 10 kilos of C4 strapped around her torso as payback, thus perpetrating the cycle of violence and vengeance.

Glad to know this war is making us safer otherwise I'd be freaking out now.

Do I blame our troops? How can I? I'm not the one who's baking in the desert. I'm not the one who has to view every Iraq as a potential threat, etc.

In other words, what we have here is one seriously f*cked situation where there's rarely a 'good' or 'right' course of action.

As always, I could be wrong, but my perception is a large percentage of supporters of Bush's Wars would identify themselves as Christians - not liberal sing-happy-songs Christians but righteous God-is-on-our-side Christians.

I think of this and I think "Really? You think God approves of what we've done / are doing? Is this really your conception of a loving God? How do you explain that (some) Muslims believe that God (Allah) is on their side? Is God one really wicked dude who likes to play both sides against the middle? You know, just for some cosmic laughs?"

In the same vein I've previously wondered why so many gung-ho Christians seem to not recognize that we seem to be the modern day Romans:

1. The Romans were the world's superpower then, we're (currently) the world's superpower.
2. The Romans occupied weaker countries, we're occupying Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.
3. The Romans could be cruel and brutal to those who opposed them (hey they nailed JC to the cross (and that was punishment for common criminals)). We can be cruel and brutal to those who oppose us (Shock and Awe, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, "Peace through superior firepower", etc.)
4. etc.

In terms of coping one (relative) advantage I feel I have compared to friends of mine who are atheist / agnostic is that I believe in karma [1] - that sometime, some-"where" the scales of justice will balance i.e. what goes around comes around.

But that's pretty abstract when I look at the picture of an orphaned child, or a child who's had a limb blown off by American artillery or munitions (good ol' Made in the US of A, God Bless America). When that happens, the human in me, here, now comes pretty damned close to despair.

I don't know how many Iraqis (Afghanistans, etc.) will ever be able to forgive us but if you're a Christian (or have any belief system which includes a transcendent reality) and are currently not praying for forgiveness (whether you supported, currently support or don't support the war, it doesn't matter [2]) you might want to consider starting now and consider keeping it up until your last breath 'cause we're going to need it.

We may be able to rationalize our decisions on the Earth plane but (IMHO) the Universe can be one exacting bean counter i.e. karmic payback can be a serious bitchslap the likes of which I suspect few Americans have ever experienced (in this lifetime; yours truly included).

WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) indeed.

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[1] Keep in mind that as an American, my understanding of karma is more of the "Teach Yourself Karma in 30 Days" variety than that of say a lifelong Buddhist.

[2] By this I don't mean to imply that those who opposed this war are karmically responsible (as I understand it) for all that flows from it but a recognition that collectively we're in the same boat i.e. a terrorist attack on US soil isn't likely to discriminate.

It also reflects the belief (in the Christian tradition at least) that we can pray on behalf of those who won't or can't pray for themselves.