Foreign medical workers among 10 killed in Afghanistan

BBC ^ | August 7th 2010 | AFP

[RepublitarianRoger2]

I used the phrase "doesn't quite imply, but still connotes"

Uh huh. And I replied to say that it does no such thing.

[TigerLikesRooster]

A little business venture went wrong, and made an international headline. Now they have become priority target of Allied Forces in Afghan. What a catastrophic business move.

[gandalftb]

The group had stopped for lunch at a restaurant in the village when they were attacked by about 10 local bandits.

There is a fatalistic hubris shared by a lot of "missionaries" that they are somehow immune from the primitive dramas they inject themselves into. That somehow their good intentions will protect them.

I see this folly as no different than going to a zoo and crawling into the lion cage, hoping they've been fed recently.

I realize my report is at complete odds with the media story. There seems a strong drive to legitimize what they were doing. I think it is more important to report the facts and let everyone realize how grim life and death is in Afghanistan.

Few of the locals will give a whit that these doctors can no longer treat their own countrymen. It is strictly a them or us attitude with Afghans.

[TigerLikesRooster]

fatalistic hubris shared by a lot of "missionaries"

also shared by garden-variety bleeding-heart liberal Christians. Actually, this is how you remain to be an acceptable Christian in Europe. You have to highlight bleeding-heart potential of Christianity.

[eleni121]

Not just bandits - Taliban Muslim bandits.

The other clarification you need is your statement that missionaries are fatalists and act with hubris. That is your own BIAS being projected onto the victims’ motivations.

[eleni121]

Your emotions are showing. Your spirited offense against Christians is actually funny. At this point there is nothing I can show you that will change your aggressive stance against militant and defensive Christianity

Only the Lord Jesus can do that. Or even reading the Christian fathers.

[Cardhu]

"Tom Little, an optometrist from Delmar, New York, who has been working in Afghanistan for about 30 years and spoke fluent Dari, one of the two main Afghan languages, Frans said. Little, along with employees from other Christian organizations, were expelled by the Taleban government in August 2001 after the arrest of eight Christian aid workers — two Americans and six Germans — for allegedly trying to convert Afghans to Christianity.

He returned to Afghanistan after the Taleban government was toppled in November 2001 by US-backed forces. Known in Kabul as "Mr. Tom," Little supervised a network of IAM eye hospitals and clinics around the country largely funded through private donations."

There does seem to be a little more to the attack than first mentioned. Tom Little, the leader of the group, along with others, had already been expelled by the Taliban for proselytizing but had returned with the American invading forces, which drove the Taliban out of Kabul. This could have been interpreted as an in your face defiance of the very people who were the government of that country and had previouly expelled him.

"Mr. "Tom" Little, with his 30 years of living in Afghanistan was a well know figure, and with his fluent knowledge of Dari they could easily conclude that he was a valuable asset to the Americans. Having once been kicked out of the country for trying to convert Afghanis, the Taliban's claim that bibles in Dari were found with the group should not be dismissed.

[eleni121]

Blaming the victims are we?

[RepublitarianRoger2]

*I'm* emotional and "funny"? Well, dear, you're hilarious, and nothing if not emotional. My posts are all completely factual and analytical in nature. Wow, talk about someone who just militantly refuses to understand what I am saying and stubbornly remains confrontational in the face of what should be a completely non-confrontational idea. As I said: You continue to insist on making a connection between what I actually said -- that people who were of the Christian faith have of course committed unjustified atrocities and violent acts in the course of history -- with something I did not say, which is that the Christian faith is responsible for these attacks and that these attacks that were made by people (who are, after all, always fallible, even Popes) were somehow being pointed out in order to reflect poorly on the Christian faith itself.

You stated that NO person of the Christian faith has EVER, in the ENTIRE course of history, committed ANY atrocity or violent act. This is statement is simply ludicrous and laughable, absolutely false. Now, you could argue that those people, while they might have claimed to be Christian, were not actually "religious" Christians (as you defined them), because they were not following Jesus' instructions when they did their dirty deeds. And I would say sure! People are people and as such are fallible, some more so than others.

So I was simply repudiating your statement that no Christian person has ever done a really bad thing. Sure some have! There is no denying that. What you are doing, however, is taking this as an affront to Christianity itself. You are interpreting what I am saying as an "aggressive" attack on Christianity, as meaning that it is something less than pure and true, as a derision of your faith. Nothing could be further from the truth.

You need to stop connecting what I am saying about the fact that some people, who happened to be avowed Christians, messed up and did some terrible things, with your adamant defense of your Christian faith. I am not attacking your faith. I am not attacking Christianity. I AM predominantly Christian (though I assume, not as fundamentalist as you), but I was born and raised Lutheran, for crying out loud. Why would I attack my own faith?

I love the way some people here play the "peg" game. From a couple of sentences in a single post, they already have me pegged as a (1) secularist, (2) atheist, (3) militant anti-Christian, (4) RINO, (5) anarchic Libertarian, and who knows what else. I am none of those things, but I am getting a pretty good sense of what you are: militantly confrontational against anyone who says ANYTHING that could even remotely be construed by you as an attack on Christianity.

Except that it wasn't, and your refusal to recognize the factual and quite non-controversial statement that I actually made, and continue to misconstrue it as an attack on you and your (and my) faith alike, is just, well, silly.

[gandalftb]

No, I have been watching missionaries go into troubled parts of the world all my life and I think a lot of them have a tendency to martyrdom.

Their motivation was to travel in a large group, with no security what so ever, into a remote area full of hating and armed people.

Now they are all dead instead of treating sick people.

Their dreaminess is now their families nightmare.

My bias is to see highly skilled doctors treat the sick, nothing more.

[eleni121]

Their families are dealing with their loss in dignity and in the spirit of sacrifice for a greater good.

These heroic missionaries - and by the way they WERE highly skilled - are doing first and foremost the Lord's work. Obviously you disapprove. That is your prerogative. But the most significant work for the poor everywhere in the world is done by Christian missionaries not by Govt. drones.

[gandalftb]

Please read my post.

Only disapprove of highly skilled doctors traveling so carelessly that they are now DEAD.

Their recklessness has deprived the sick in Afghanistan of needed medical care. You can't do the Lord's work on earth if you are in heaven.

[eleni121]

Their recklessness ...

---

Oh my NO! What a strange use of the word reckless. These Saints are not reckless. They knew exactly what they were doing and had years of experience there. You do not understand Christians.

Their passing will only inspire thousands of others to get involved.

[gandalftb]

Why do you cherry pick individual words and refuse the discuss the (repeated) point of my messages?

Explain why being dead, because of their personal security mistake, is better than being alive and helping others.

You say: "They knew exactly what they were doing". Excuse me, their body bags speak otherwise.....

You say: "You do not understand Christians." Excuse me, what authority do you have to question the belief system of anyone?

When Christians make mistakes, and die, and deprive the world of their skills and honorable beliefs, OK, that is something I disagree with, don't you?

You say: "Their passing will only inspire....to get involved". And die like they did? What is it about dead and non-functional don't you understand?

You obviously believe in martyrdom as an acceptable outcome of humanitarian service. So does bin Laden......

[nw_arizona_granny]

Thank you for pinging me.