America's 'Terrible Thing' (Get ready to puke)

Boston Globe ^ | Aug 2, 2005 | James Carroll

[jstassis]

AT LEAST God told Moses the truth. Before laying on him the requirements of a monotheistic faith that would immediately cause violent conflict with idol-worshipers, God said, ''It is a terrible thing that I will do with you." And so it was.

The statement comes in the very verses of Exodus that define the covenant God makes with Moses and his harried people. ''I shall do marvels," God promises. But it is the certainty of ''the terrible thing" that defines this relationship going forward. The terrible thing, first, of permanent war against the Amorites, the Canaanites, and their eternal successors. The terrible thing, existentially, of living without idols. The terrible thing of the Law, which all inevitably violate. The terrible thing of being forced to face the truth, a mandate God gives by example with this stark declaration at the outset.

In the United States of America, a terrible thing shapes our relationship to the world, but we do not admit it, not even on its unhappy anniversary. Sixty years ago this week, American B-29s named Enola Gay and Bock's Car dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities. The men responsible insisted, in the face of shocking devastation, that the bombs were not so terrible.

[cvq3842]

So was mine.

I was a Democrat too. My party left me . . .

[chris1]

"1945 was the bloodiest year in human history. Hundreds of thousands were dying each month in Asia due to the Japanese occupation. Dropping the bombs saved millions of Asian lives, including untold numbers of Japanese."

Don't confuse liberals with facts. It gets in their way.

[clintonh8r]

Exactly. Carroll misrepresents the meaning of "terrible" in the Biblical context. Typical leftist corruption of the language to suit his agenda.

[JRios1968]

I guess Pearl Harbor was our fault too.

Don't you know? It was Bush's fault, notwithstanding the fact that he was born in 1946.

[jalisco555]

I was a Democrat too. My party left me . . .

Same here. Jimmy Carter made a Reagan Republican out of me.

[Dionysius]

Something good did come of it. We saved a projected million casualties that we would have suffered if we had to invade the main islands. But this moral relativist sphinxter muscle hates everything American and would have cheered every loss. The true "terrible thing" is that we must suffer these fools whom are poisoning us from the inside.

[dinasour]

Now somebody else will have to explain why the Japanese slaughter of the Chinese was our fault.

A perfectly natural response to their humiliation at the hands of Adm. Perry. If we had left them alone, they would have had no need to prove themselves to the world.

/SARCASM

[T.Smith]

I guess in the liberal mind the world is always peace, love and cotton candy until the US steps in?

>sigh<
I hate them so very, very much.

[RSmithOpt]

....not to mentioned 30,000,000 in Europe and N. Africa started by 'peaceful' Nazi Austrian - part Jew named Hitler.

[tertiary01]

Here's an interesting thread from last night.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1455115/posts

[JimSEA]

What bizzare rubbish!

It may seem irreverent, or irrelevant, to compare all of this to the initiating act of the God of Exodus, but the warning is there to heed, together with the example.

There is something totally fallacious about this guy's initial premise -- ascribing evil to the advent of monotheistic religion. It is only possible if you have no clear concept of good and evil. The idol worshipers that were in the middle east were not some modern "wiccan" types, looking into their crystals and wishing good upon the world.

From a "humanistic" point of view, the rulers and priests of these idol worshipers were using religion to control the masses, getting them to work in fear of their rulers. Almost all practiced some form of human sacrifice. These religions were bad news if you were a farmer or a shop keeper. All of the religions which are thought of as compassionate came forth generally within the first millennium BC and replaced some really hideous cults. Judaism and Christianity, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism all had some pretty nasty predecessors.

From that fatally flawed beginning to this article, the Boston Globe writer goes predictably down hill. If these guys hate all that America has been so much, why haven't they gone to a peoples paradise like China or Cuba and taken up arms to fight for their beliefs.

Rant over.

[jalisco555]

We saved a projected million casualties that we would have suffered if we had to invade the main islands

The country that benefited the most from the atomic bombing of Japan, beside the US, was Japan itself. 1/3 of the civilian population of Okinawa, 150,000 people, died in that battle, in addition to tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers. Extrapolate that to the Home Island population and millions of civilians would have perished in an invasion.

BTW, there was an alternative to invasion that was under active consideration. That was to starve the people of Japan into submission by shifting the conventional bombing campaign from cities to the rail system, paralyzing food distribution. Millions would have died had we done that.

[Sax]

Yes bizarre. The author uses the religious overtones, because he misunderstands the conservatives he seeks to attack - he most likely stereotypes all Conservatives as religious zealots, and this is how he attempted to establish credibility for his article.

Nuclear power was a genie that was coming out of the bottle either way. Nazi scientists, then transfered to Russia, were working on it too - it was a race with the highest stakes.

Now the author seems to propose that since we did not eliminate nukes everyone else wants them too.

Sounds like 'if everyone destroyed their guns, the bad guys wouldn't want them either.' Nice in theory, but reality sucks and we have to deal with it.

He doesn't mention that nukes haven't been used in war since. I believe that is because there is a responsible entity(s) at the helm of nuclear balance on this planet. If the US diminished/eliminated it's nuclear arsenal, who would ascend to the helm? Why would we knowingly relinquish to control to whomever would secretly arise? Seems foolish to me.

But being foolish seems to pay this author's bills.

[Frank_2001]

What lefty can resist the urge to bash both America and (indirectly) Israel in the same article?

[RSmithOpt]

I hear you! Not many Zell Millers and Harry Trumans left in the DNC these days........more like a bunch of jacka$$e$.

[chesley]

You got that right about the liberal mindset. The US is the sole source of evil in the world.

But how can you hate them? Hate is an emotion to be used only for those that are morally responsible for their actions. I don't hate a rattlesnake. It's not morally responsible. I agree with Michael Savage. Liberalism is a mental disease.

[caseinpoint]

Thanks for the barf alert. Good thing I just woke up and hadn't eaten breakfast.

It appears that according to Carroll, it's all God's fault. See, if he had just left the Children of Israel as they were--worshipping Osiris and Isis and the rest of the animistic idols--then monotheism would never have been established in the Middle East and things would be perfect without Jews, Christians or Muslims. So instead of blaming Bush, he blames the Burning Bush, I guess.

[Frank_2001]

Exactly!

[Jaysun]

"And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee." (Exodus 34:10)

"Terrible" is this verse doesn't mean "dreadful", it means "awesome" or "to cause astonishment and awe".

[BJClinton]

James Carroll's column appears regularly in the Globe.

'nuff said.