Petr
12-07-2005, 08:22 PM
A thought-provoking piece from a provocative writer...
http://members.aol.com/thejman99/
The Repentance of Judas
Then Judas, which had betrayed Him, when he saw that He was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
Los Angeles Times, 27 November 2005: One hot, dusty day in June, Col. Ted Westhusing was found dead in a trailer at a military base near the Baghdad airport, a single gunshot wound to the head. The Army would conclude that he committed suicide. . .Westhusing, 44, was no ordinary officer. He was one of the Army's leading scholars of military ethics, a full professor at West Point who volunteered to serve in Iraq to be able to better teach his students. He had a doctorate in philosophy. . .
In his 352-page dissertation, Westhusing discussed the ethics of war, focusing on examples of military honor from Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to the Israeli army. It is a dense, searching and sometimes personal effort to define what, exactly, constitutes virtuous conduct in the context of the modern U.S. military. "Born to be a warrior, I desire these answers not just for philosophical reasons, but for self-knowledge," he wrote in the opening pages. . .
In e-mails to his family, Westhusing seemed especially upset by one conclusion he had reached: that traditional military values such as duty, honor and country had been replaced by profit motives in Iraq, where the U.S. had come to rely heavily on contractors for jobs once done by the military. . .
His friends and family struggle with the idea that Westhusing could have killed himself. He was a loving father and husband and a devout Catholic. . .
His wife recalled a phone conversation that chilled her two weeks before his death. "I heard something in his voice," she told investigators, according to a transcript of the interview. "In Ted's voice, there was fear. He did not like the nighttime and being alone.". . .
At a meeting the next morning to discuss construction delays, he seemed agitated. . .Uncharacteristically, he lashed out at the contractors in attendance, according to the Army Corps official. "He was sick of money-grubbing contractors," the official recounted. Westhusing said that "he had not come over to Iraq for this."
Most of the (suicide) letter is a wrenching account of a struggle for honor in a strange land. . ."I cannot support a msn [mission] that leads to corruption, human rights abuse and liars. I am sullied," it says. "I came to serve honorably and feel dishonored. Death before being dishonored any more."
The *warrior* commits suicide. . .this is the repentance of Judas. . .and the story of modern Christendom. The colonel is described as a *devout Catholic,* yet there is no evidence he had faith in Christ. Here is that most sad of all men: the man who learns everything he has built his life upon is sand. One can quote the Savior:
"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."
This most sad of all men, this *colonel,* did not build his foundation upon the Rock that is Christ, he built his foundation upon the sand of a *warrior's* code. He devoted years of his life to *military ethics,* determined to find a formula to sanction his country's violence. He accepted the Satanic logic of the world: there is a right way and a wrong way to kill, destroy and occupy, and he applied it in service to his nation.
The *warrior* must have a nation with which to pledge fidelity. . .he becomes servant to an idealized state. . .the state and its *way of life* are exalted. . .this becomes the cornerstone of death and destruction. . .it is *ethical* to violently disrupt other lesser states if the superior state leaves a copy of itself in place. . .in the case of Iraq, we have *democracy by tropism*. . .the strategy of HIV. . .invade, infect, replicate. . .*freedom by retro-virus.* All very ethical. . .
Yet when the colonel had to live and breathe in Iraq, the latest Petri dish for the Amerikan contagion, his self-enchantment soon ended. . .he saw the venality of the Amerikan undertaking. . .no honor, no nobility. . .nothing but lies, torture and money grubbing.
Give the colonel his due: unlike the vast majority who carry Amerika's banner in Iraq, he opened his eyes and his ears. But in his darkest hour, realizing he had dedicated his life to folly, the colonel made his greatest mistake. Filled with a spirit of Judas, he turned to self-sacrifice to save his soul (which he confused with *honor*. . .*honor* being nothing but the bad fruit from the tree of vanity. . .and again one must wonder at the *devout Catholicism* of the colonel. . .here is one supposedly devoted to Christ, yet totally unaware all honor is for the Lord alone. . . .Christ calls sinners to repentance: what honor can be in sin?).
But God will not have self-sacrifice. . .God cannot accept the repentance of Judas. . .self-sacrifice is the final act of the betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ, one final snub of His shed blood, one last selfish act of defiance, one last arrogant attempt to force the Almighty to accept man's way, the work of man's hand, man's sacrifice, man's *ethics,* as it were. . .the sacrifice of Cain, the repentance of Judas.
Cue Black Sabbath, my friend. . .and play the funeral dirge for the colonel:
Day of judgment, God is calling/on their knees the war pigs crawling/Begging mercies for their sins/Satan, laughing, spreads his wings.
http://members.aol.com/thejman99/
The Repentance of Judas
Then Judas, which had betrayed Him, when he saw that He was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
Los Angeles Times, 27 November 2005: One hot, dusty day in June, Col. Ted Westhusing was found dead in a trailer at a military base near the Baghdad airport, a single gunshot wound to the head. The Army would conclude that he committed suicide. . .Westhusing, 44, was no ordinary officer. He was one of the Army's leading scholars of military ethics, a full professor at West Point who volunteered to serve in Iraq to be able to better teach his students. He had a doctorate in philosophy. . .
In his 352-page dissertation, Westhusing discussed the ethics of war, focusing on examples of military honor from Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to the Israeli army. It is a dense, searching and sometimes personal effort to define what, exactly, constitutes virtuous conduct in the context of the modern U.S. military. "Born to be a warrior, I desire these answers not just for philosophical reasons, but for self-knowledge," he wrote in the opening pages. . .
In e-mails to his family, Westhusing seemed especially upset by one conclusion he had reached: that traditional military values such as duty, honor and country had been replaced by profit motives in Iraq, where the U.S. had come to rely heavily on contractors for jobs once done by the military. . .
His friends and family struggle with the idea that Westhusing could have killed himself. He was a loving father and husband and a devout Catholic. . .
His wife recalled a phone conversation that chilled her two weeks before his death. "I heard something in his voice," she told investigators, according to a transcript of the interview. "In Ted's voice, there was fear. He did not like the nighttime and being alone.". . .
At a meeting the next morning to discuss construction delays, he seemed agitated. . .Uncharacteristically, he lashed out at the contractors in attendance, according to the Army Corps official. "He was sick of money-grubbing contractors," the official recounted. Westhusing said that "he had not come over to Iraq for this."
Most of the (suicide) letter is a wrenching account of a struggle for honor in a strange land. . ."I cannot support a msn [mission] that leads to corruption, human rights abuse and liars. I am sullied," it says. "I came to serve honorably and feel dishonored. Death before being dishonored any more."
The *warrior* commits suicide. . .this is the repentance of Judas. . .and the story of modern Christendom. The colonel is described as a *devout Catholic,* yet there is no evidence he had faith in Christ. Here is that most sad of all men: the man who learns everything he has built his life upon is sand. One can quote the Savior:
"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."
This most sad of all men, this *colonel,* did not build his foundation upon the Rock that is Christ, he built his foundation upon the sand of a *warrior's* code. He devoted years of his life to *military ethics,* determined to find a formula to sanction his country's violence. He accepted the Satanic logic of the world: there is a right way and a wrong way to kill, destroy and occupy, and he applied it in service to his nation.
The *warrior* must have a nation with which to pledge fidelity. . .he becomes servant to an idealized state. . .the state and its *way of life* are exalted. . .this becomes the cornerstone of death and destruction. . .it is *ethical* to violently disrupt other lesser states if the superior state leaves a copy of itself in place. . .in the case of Iraq, we have *democracy by tropism*. . .the strategy of HIV. . .invade, infect, replicate. . .*freedom by retro-virus.* All very ethical. . .
Yet when the colonel had to live and breathe in Iraq, the latest Petri dish for the Amerikan contagion, his self-enchantment soon ended. . .he saw the venality of the Amerikan undertaking. . .no honor, no nobility. . .nothing but lies, torture and money grubbing.
Give the colonel his due: unlike the vast majority who carry Amerika's banner in Iraq, he opened his eyes and his ears. But in his darkest hour, realizing he had dedicated his life to folly, the colonel made his greatest mistake. Filled with a spirit of Judas, he turned to self-sacrifice to save his soul (which he confused with *honor*. . .*honor* being nothing but the bad fruit from the tree of vanity. . .and again one must wonder at the *devout Catholicism* of the colonel. . .here is one supposedly devoted to Christ, yet totally unaware all honor is for the Lord alone. . . .Christ calls sinners to repentance: what honor can be in sin?).
But God will not have self-sacrifice. . .God cannot accept the repentance of Judas. . .self-sacrifice is the final act of the betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ, one final snub of His shed blood, one last selfish act of defiance, one last arrogant attempt to force the Almighty to accept man's way, the work of man's hand, man's sacrifice, man's *ethics,* as it were. . .the sacrifice of Cain, the repentance of Judas.
Cue Black Sabbath, my friend. . .and play the funeral dirge for the colonel:
Day of judgment, God is calling/on their knees the war pigs crawling/Begging mercies for their sins/Satan, laughing, spreads his wings.