Benazir Bhutto, U2, and peace on earth

[**Rowland Croucher**]

Benazir Bhutto - violence begets violence

U2 have a song called 'Peace on Earth' which I take as a song of
frustration at the lack of peace at a time of year when we see those
words on Christmas cards and hear them in church services the world
over. That song became real to me again after hearing of the
assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Once again a person looking for
democracy in their country has been cut down in an act of violence. I
felt shocked when I first heard of it while listening to the cricket on
the radio. When will we ever learn that violence simply begets more
violence and hate begets more hate? Violence will never ultimately
achieve what its perpetrators want. That is simply a fact of life, as
surely as night follows day. While this is not the space to go into the
details of the ultimate motivations of terrorists and suicide bombers,
even if they got what they ultimately wanted, it would still be a
society based on fear, which can never be a society at peace, either
with others or with itself.



Perhaps some of the words of U2's song say it best:



Heaven on Earth, we need it now

I'm sick of all of this hanging around

Sick of the sorrow, sick of the pain

Sick of hearing again and again

That there's gonna be peace on earth







.....it's already gone too far

Who said that if you go in hard you won't get hurt







Jesus could you take the time to throw a drowning man a line

Peace on Earth

Tell the ones who hear no sound, whose sons are living in the ground

Peace on Earth







.....Jesus sing the song you wrote

The words are sticking in my throat

Peace on Earth

We hear it every Christmas time

But hope and history won't rhyme

So what's it worth, this peace on Earth?







Pretty much my sentiments exactly. Benazir Bhutto lies dead and her
country is in turmoil. Despite the allegations of corruption surrounding
Bhutto's past, she was a leader in a country looking to the future. Just
like Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln in
years gone by, the murder of Benazir Bhutto will not achieve the end
goal that its perpetrators seek. Only love will do that. Love, peace and
justice.

Fear and rage have boiled over in the streets of Pakistan because people
created in the image of God decided that violence was the best course of
action. They are wrong. Martin Luther King said that there can never be
true justice without peace. His words ring true this Christmas time as
we once again witness the cutting down of a political leader and lament
the lack of peace on Earth.

by Nils von Kalm

www.soulthoughts.com
--
Shalom/Salaam/Pax! Rowland Croucher

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/ (20,000 articles 4000 humor)

Blogs - http://rowlandsblogs.blogspot.com/

Justice for Dawn Rowan - http://dawnrowansaga.blogspot.com/

Funny Jokes and Pics - http://funnyjokesnpics.blogspot.com/

[Bob Crowley]

On Dec 31 2007, 11:54 am, **Rowland Croucher**

Post by **Rowland Croucher**
Benazir Bhutto - violence begets violence
U2 have a song called 'Peace on Earth' which I take as a song of
frustration at the lack of peace at a time of year when we see those
words on Christmas cards and hear them in church services the world
over. That song became real to me again after hearing of the
assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Once again a person looking for
democracy in their country has been cut down in an act of violence. I
felt shocked when I first heard of it while listening to the cricket on
the radio. When will we ever learn that violence simply begets more
violence and hate begets more hate? Violence will never ultimately
achieve what its perpetrators want. That is simply a fact of life, as
surely as night follows day. While this is not the space to go into the
details of the ultimate motivations of terrorists and suicide bombers,
even if they got what they ultimately wanted, it would still be a
society based on fear, which can never be a society at peace, either
with others or with itself.
Heaven on Earth, we need it now
I'm sick of all of this hanging around
Sick of the sorrow, sick of the pain
Sick of hearing again and again
That there's gonna be peace on earth
.....it's already gone too far
Who said that if you go in hard you won't get hurt
Jesus could you take the time to throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
Tell the ones who hear no sound, whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth
The words are sticking in my throat
Peace on Earth
We hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won't rhyme
So what's it worth, this peace on Earth?
Pretty much my sentiments exactly. Benazir Bhutto lies dead and her
country is in turmoil. Despite the allegations of corruption surrounding
Bhutto's past, she was a leader in a country looking to the future. Just
like Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln in
years gone by, the murder of Benazir Bhutto will not achieve the end
goal that its perpetrators seek. Only love will do that. Love, peace and
justice.
Fear and rage have boiled over in the streets of Pakistan because people
created in the image of God decided that violence was the best course of
action. They are wrong. Martin Luther King said that there can never be
true justice without peace. His words ring true this Christmas time as
we once again witness the cutting down of a political leader and lament
the lack of peace on Earth.
by Nils von Kalm
www.soulthoughts.com
--
Shalom/Salaam/Pax! Rowland Croucher
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/ (20,000 articles 4000 humor)
Blogs -http://rowlandsblogs.blogspot.com/
Justice for Dawn Rowan -http://dawnrowansaga.blogspot.com/
Funny Jokes and Pics -http://funnyjokesnpics.blogspot.com

I accept the desire for peace and an end to the cruelty the human race
perpetuates upon itself. However "peace" as the world understands it,
ie. an absence of conflict, and the peace Christ is supposed to give
are two different things. Christ himself lived in an occupied
country.

In the case of Pakistan, I don't think there's much hope. It's been a
deliberate policy of successive Pakistani governments to train
terrorists on their home ground, for use against Kashmir, India and
against the Soviets in Afghanistan, as well as further afield in other
Islamic sponsored terrorism. The Americans were willing to use them
in Afghanistan for their own purposes. Had the Americans followed up
in Afghanistan with a much greater aid program after the Soviet exit,
they might have been able to avoid a lot of the problems which have
ensued. Now they're tied down on two frustrating fronts.

What you sow, you reap. I've had a suspicion for years that if there
is a fundamentalist takeover of Pakistan, one of the things that will
rapidly follow will be a nuclear war, probably started by India. I
don't see India waiting to see what the hotheads do with their new
nuclear stockpile.

The following quote came from this site. It is from an article on
Moslem violence in India when Hindu India was ruled by Moslems (the
Moghul Empire and before). Hinduism is a fairly peaceful religion.
Islam is not. If Moslems can't find a common enemy to fight, they
then seem to turn on each other, since violence is part of their
creed. Again you sow what you reap. To quote somebody I know, "The
legacy of Moslem violence in India is burned deeply into the Indian
consciousness".

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.aspx?GUID={401C6222-3668-4E4B-9824-D85A9D2B4B6A}

"These massacres perpetrated by Moslems in India are unparalleled in
history. In sheer numbers, they are bigger than the Jewish Holocaust,
the Soviet Terror, the Japanese massacres of the Chinese during WWII,
Mao's devastations of the Chinese peasantry, the massacres of the
Armenians by the Turks, or any of the other famous crimes against
humanity of the 20th Century. But sadly, they are almost unknown
outside India."