Lord, pleeze murder my enemies

I did a four-year bid in the Navy onboard the USS Kittyhawk (CVN 63). I’ve felt the unmerciful heat of the Persian Gulf twice in my life, for MANY months. I’ve seen the fighter aircrafts in attack formation returning to the ship after carrying out their missions. I’ve even seen the little “fishing boats” that are actually used to spy on US ships deployed in that region. I’m not trying to sound like some kind of war hero, that’s just a little background information to help ya’ll feel this story.
There was a chaplain onboard the ship that would deliver a prayer over the loudspeaker every night while we were out to sea. Most nights, he prayed for the safety of the crew and for their family members back home.
One particular evening, his prayer was a little different. “Lord,” he said, “please guide our missiles and bombs so that they will destroy all of our targets with complete accuracy. Be with our bullets, Lord, so that they will strike our enemies down and not be wasted.” He went on to ask the Lord for a blessing upon all of the airplanes aboard the ship, and all of the crew members in charge of the ship’s ordnance. There was no mention of peace.
At the time, it seemed like a funny thing to hear. But as I look back on that incident, and see the state of the world today, I realize why the notion of world peace seems so unrealistic. People like that chaplain and the President want war. They are praying for war. Personally, I believe they want war for the wrong reasons though. To them, it’s not about maintaining a peaceful lifestyle.
It’s about a display of power and world dominance. I haven’t seen one shred of evidence yet that would convince me that Saddam is making a nuclear weapon; but I know for a fact that there are 14 million stomachs growling in Africa from hunger. Why not say a prayer for them and then go to war on world hunger?
They’re saying Saddam Hussein is the “new face of terror.” What about the crooked police that beat up that little black sixteen year old kid, or the ones that sexually assaulted the brother in New York, or the racist police that harass minority groups all over this country, or RACISM PERIOD? Let’s pray for the victims of this “terror” and wage war against racial injustice.
What about the sorry public school system? Why not pray for that to improve? Why not go to war for better education for those children?
I’m just an idealist. I believe that there are a lot of issues in the world that need to be dealt with to restore peace, and a peaceable way of resolving them. I believe if we focus on the agents of war like poverty, ignorance, greed, and selfishness, we can avoid armed conflict and ALL work together to co-exist in this world. They’re talking about sending people to live on Mars, so I JUST KNOW world peace isn’t too far out of reach.
It’s a shame that the leaders of the world’s nations are too blind to see that. But it’s not just them. I’ve noticed around my neighborhood that if I lock eyes with a brother for more than two seconds, they’ll be ready to fight. I don’t want to fight ‘em though. I just say “What’s up” and pray for ‘em.