Our country currently stands between two opposing compulsions: On the one hand, the delusional need to feed a senseless and hideous war and on the other, the need of those suffering in the south Asian crisis. The starkness of these comparative worlds could hardly be more polarized. Our war compulsion is a world of suffering by human design, molded on the needs of an economic war machine whose insatiable need for human suffering would be hard to rationalize to normal folks and impossible to the needy of South Asia.

The compulsion, however, to help those afflicted by the horrors of the tsunami is unsurpassable. It develops in us an unavoidable humanitarian spirit. A heightened sense of what is good, which, when applied to our role in Iraq, causes an awakening of conscience.

Thankfully, the unavoidable contrast of the two worlds cannot be spun into a sanitized dish for Americans to snack on. Instead, the two images of horror bore down on humanity and in particular America, with a light of condemnation and shame. If we, as we should, help the victims of South Asia then why not stop our godless war in Iraq. As we pray for those who need our help we also need to repent for those we crush. In doing so we might rectify our compulsions.

Peter Nagle