TELEVISION and social media sometimes inform us (graphically) more than we would like.
Nobody can be sanguine at the sight of civilian deaths, especially children (although every human life is sacred); the destruction of hospitals and indifference to the Red Cross; the widespread destruction of an ancient capital and the trampling of the human spirit by barbaric, brutal slaughter.
The British Ambassador to the UN called it from “siege to slaughter” and his American counterpart pondered about “what will shame you?”, in remarks to the Russian Federation and Syrian Arabic Republic. The Holy Father sent a special envoy to President Assad to plead for an end to it all.
As I write this, the temporary truce, to bus out the remaining persons in Eastern Aleppo, has collapsed. It is doubtful that anything or anybody will be spared and that is a disgrace nobody can avoid. This sickening spectacle reveals the veneer of humanity that breaks in response to power and the hypocrisy of everybody involved.
It is, in part, British and American armaments that feed the war machine – as the Pope reminds us – and this weakens the moral position of all the powers. They are providing the lethal toys that allow this war to be prosecuted.
The anti-war movement that gained momentum from the 1960s has all but dissipated in the world today. Environmental and Human Rights have taken the ascendency. Worthy as these issues may be, surely it is time for a voice on behalf of the people of Syria and elsewhere.
While it is not clear what to do, we can take the full contingent of 17,000 promised places for Syrians in Australia and maybe increase that number.
We can pray for all the people of Syria, not least the many Christians in that country and, not least where is the national and political condemnation of the mischievous players in this sad story of grave sin and corrupt economies that profit on murder masquerading as war?