Well, That's Obvious...

"Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has said he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war," reports the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5291420.stm

ID Chips for U.S. Troops?

"VeriChip Corp... is hoping to convince the Pentagon to allow them to insert the [i.d.] chips, known as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips under the skin of the right arms of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen to enable them to scan an arm and obtain that person’s identity and medical history. The chips would replace the legendary metal dog tags that have been worn by U.S. military personnel since 1906."

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/8/21/232558.shtml

God's Will in the Public Square

"Every once in a while, a national leader delivers a speech that outlasts the afternoon talk shows. Barack Obama did it in 2004 for the Democratic National Convention. He did it again with his June 28 address on religion and politics. 'It was, for the first time in modern memory, an affirmative statement from a Democrat about "how to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy," as Obama put it,' Amy Sullivan wrote in Slate. She contrasted Obama's remarks with landmark speeches delivered by John F. Kennedy and Mario Cuomo, which mostly explained how Catholic faith did not affect their decision-making."

Link: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/009/4.28.html

Military Ethics
U.S. Rabbis Urge IDF War Code Change

"The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) has called on Israel to reevaluate its military rules of war in light of Hizbullah's 'unconscionable use of civilians, hospitals, ambulances, mosques and the like as human shields, cannon fodder and weapons of asymmetric warfare,' " reports the Jerusalem Post.

Link:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525912677&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

China's Christians

Time magazine comments on Christianity in China:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1229123,00.html

Israel-Lebanon War Images

A photographer has posted pictures of the recent Isreael-Lebanon conflict at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/norayounis/.

Military Ethics
The U.S. Civil War and Christian Opinion

"Why did American Christians not think more deeply or act more ethically as the country faced bloody sectional conflict?" asks a Christianity Today article at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/008/29.66.html.

Military Ethics:
Torture Used in Recent Raids?

The recent raids in the U.K. which distrupted a terrorist plot may have been aided by information obtained through torture of a contact in Pakistan, reports the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,1844559,00.html.

The British Way

How the Brits are fighting terrorism -- is it better than U.S. methods? Link: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008794

Pray for Peace

Strategy Page gives a "quick and dirty" update on wars around the world at http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/wars/articles/20060811.aspx.

Images of U.S. Troops

An evocative gallery of images on U.S. military troops can be found at http://objflicks.com/GladiatorAmericanStyle.htm.

Exposing the Terror Plot

"A terror plot is exposed by the policies many American liberals oppose," writes a Wall Street journal editorialist. "...we don't yet know how the plot was foiled, but surely part of the explanation was crack surveillance work by British authorities." Link: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008785

The plot may have been revealed because "British authorities received a call from a worried member of the Muslim community, reporting general suspicions about an acquaintance." Link: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmE5MTU4MmQ2NWU4Yzg4ZTI5MTFjMzUyMWFjOGZhOGU=

War-Time Photo Fraud

An analysis of photos being manipulated during the current Israel-Lebanon war is at: http://www.zombietime.com/reuters_photo_fraud/ .

Middle-East Update:
Some Useful U.S.-French Diplomacy?

"The U.N. cease-fire resolution for Lebanon offered on the weekend by France and the U.S. isn't everything we might like. But it does show a new international sobriety concerning the Hezbollah problem. While there are few sources of vocal support for Ehud Olmert's Israeli government, there does seem to be widespread recognition that a return to the status quo before Hezbollah attacked is unacceptable," opines an editor at
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008765 .

Children Should Never be Soldiers

World Vision is collecting signatures to take to the Bush administration, U.S. Congress, and the UN to demand action against the use of child soldiers. Here's where you can add your signature: https://www.worldvision.org/Worldvision/guest.nsf/nochild_soldiers?OpenForm&lid=child_soldiers_bluetext&lpos=subf3

Military Christians Are Everywhere!

Did you know there are 105 groups of indigenously organized military Christian fellowships in nations around the world? For more info see www.amcf-int.org.

Also, the September ACCTS newsletter is now online. It contains news about a camp for Cambodian military personnel at which many Cambodian soldiers and their children became Christians: http://www.accts.org/media/newsletters.htm.

Faith and the Military

Just found a new blog that focuses on Christians in the military -- check it out: http://www.sarahorn.com/blog/.

The Mid-East

Beirut: Here are some pictures of Beirut before and after the current bombing:
http://cache.aftenposten.no/multimedia/archive/00433/APTOPIX_MIDEAST_FIG_433987s.jpg

Israel: 70 Bombs Hit Israel in 1 Hour:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525805493&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

9/11: The NORAD Tapes

Vanity Fair tells a story that "is arguably more important in terms of understanding America's military capabilities that day [9/11] than anything happening simultaneously on Air Force One or in the Pentagon, the White House, or NORAD's impregnable headquarters, deep within Cheyenne Mountain, in Colorado. It's a story that was intentionally obscured, some members of the 9/11 commission believe...in order to downplay the extent of the confusion and miscommunication flying through the ranks of the government..." See what you think: http://www.vanityfair.com/features/general/060801fege01

Lebanese Point of View

A Lebanese blogger notes "historical events alive in the minds of Lebanese, and note why Lebanese aren't 'infantile' (the preferred Israeli term at the moment) for blaming Syria and Iran."
http://lebop.blogspot.com/2006/08/lebanon-primer.html

Stories from War

A U.S. Marine Corp marksman discusses his faith in God versus his role as a soldier who has killed 20 insurgents: "Obviously, me being a devout Catholic, it's a conflict of interest. God supported David when he killed Goliath. I believe God supports what we do and I've never killed anyone who wasn't carrying a weapon....[insurgents] have killed good Marines I've served with. That's how I sleep at night. Though I've killed over 20 people, how many lives would those 20 people have taken?"

Link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060730/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_the_marksman;_ylt=As1i3HOAutq2TrgoN23vYjpn.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA4NTMzazIyBHNlYwMxNjk2

Wherefore Art Thou, Iraq??

"In his Sunday op-ed column for The New York Times, Frank Rich laments what the headline calls 'The Peculiar Disappearance of the War in Iraq.' "

Link:http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002914836