Published:  November 15, 2006

This writer believes that, in a manner of speaking, evil does exist. Likely not in the form of a metaphysical demonic figure--but right here, right now, within our human species. If true, there are perhaps few better examples than the human devastation and pain caused daily in the Middle East, in Iraq, specifically, as insurgents there murder, maim, and kidnap civilians and others each and every day, in a manner that grows in its severity and grotesque character.

Yesterday, for example, we learned that 100 or more persons, many civilians, were kidnapped en masse. Moreover, every day there are new reports of corpses being found, each in its own gruesome final condition, and all killed execution-style.

Moreover, the "brain-drain" that began in Iraq some time ago continues unabated, as part of the general exodus of Iraqis from the country, in a haze of fear and angst, fueled by the increasingly explicit atmosphere of death caused by the actions of these insurgents.

While not condoning the death and destruction caused by the American invasion into Iraq, one wonders whether any wisdom or love, at all, reside in the mind and soul of the people perpetrating these daily heinous crimes, generating wave after wave of human death, and literally causing the implosion of a nation, and the diminution of any chance that the fall of Hussein could have produced a new, better, and more livable Iraq.

Jeers to these ignorant and ignoble criminals. The world heaps justifiable condemnation on their actions. We can only hope for the eventual establishment of an effective Truth and Reconciliation Commission, ala' that of South Africa.