{"id":37051,"date":"2024-03-25T10:21:49","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T17:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=37051"},"modified":"2024-04-04T10:50:04","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T17:50:04","slug":"%d9%82%d8%a8%d9%84-%d9%85%d8%a7-%d8%aa%d9%86%d8%b7%d9%88%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b5%d9%81%d8%ad%d8%a9-qabl-ma-tantawi-as-safha-before-the-page-turns-iraqi-arabic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/%d9%82%d8%a8%d9%84-%d9%85%d8%a7-%d8%aa%d9%86%d8%b7%d9%88%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b5%d9%81%d8%ad%d8%a9-qabl-ma-tantawi-as-safha-before-the-page-turns-iraqi-arabic\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0642\u0628\u0644 \u0645\u0627 \u062a\u0646\u0637\u0648\u064a \u0627\u0644\u0635\u0641\u062d\u0629” (qabl ma tantawi as-safha) \u2013 Before the page turns (Iraqi Arabic)."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u0642\u0628\u0644 <\/strong>\u0645\u0627 <\/strong>\u062a\u0646\u0637\u0648\u064a <\/strong>\u0627\u0644\u0635\u0641\u062d\u0629” (qabl ma tantawi as-safha) \u2013 Before the page turns (Iraqi Arabic).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Flashback<\/p>\n

Part 1 Peering into the topic<\/p>\n

Part 2 What others are saying<\/p>\n

Epilogue<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Flashback<\/strong><\/p>\n

She\u2019s dead.<\/p>\n

Dimitri repeated, \u201cshe\u2019s dead.\u201d\u00a0 Dimi a soldier from Ukraine spoke without feeling, his face frozen.\u00a0 I remember him teasing Nahla a few days before.\u00a0 She was a proper girl and withstood the Ukrainian\u2019s flirting comments (nothing really stops soldiers from flirting).<\/p>\n

We were three people standing amidst the swirl of coalition soldiers in one of Saddam’s palaces. I remember black marble laced with gold veins covering the floor, the walls, chandeliers looming overhead. I suppose tears began to fall. I don\u2019t remember doing so, but my translator took a step back unable to understand what was happening. Dimi turned and walked away.<\/p>\n

Nahla, \u201cthe first drink from the Tigris river\u201d somehow was the meaning of her incredibly short name. I had recruited her and 23 other college level men and women to participate in a public relations training program representing 24 Iraqi Government ministries.\u00a0 Iraqi\u2019s needed to hear of the progress the coalition was making.\u00a0 I decided to use the voices of college educated Iraqis on TV and the radio.<\/p>\n

Nahla was warned not appear on TV; she would be killed warned older Iraqi\u2019s.\u00a0 Sadly, Nahla agreed but she said that radio would be safe enough.\u00a0 Training proceeded, although all the students went through print, radio and TV training.\u00a0 I passed by a class and listened before entering.\u00a0 The camera was rolling, a strong feminine voice was calling out to the audience. I turned the corner and there was Nahla.\u00a0 The instructor smiled at me\u2026\u201d she\u2019s a natural.\u201d She was my star pupil.<\/p>\n

Flashforward\u2026I walked into the Ministry of Museums and Antiquity and people were in tears. Nahla had called in, \u201cOh no, the car hit a bomb,\u201d she said. A little later, \u201cI think I\u2019m bleeding.\u201d Then Silence.<\/p>\n

I was asked to say some words at the next soldiers service. Yes, soldiers especially those in combat zones avidly attend religious services (all flavors).\u00a0 Whoever the creator of the adage, \u201cthere are no atheists in the fox,\u201d is strongly debated, and certainly many atheists soldiers would disagree, but I have seen enough combat situations where nominal faith believers (all flavors) return to rediscover what faith has to offer in combat situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the page turns on Nahla, Let me tell you how she lived,\u201d<\/strong> I started.<\/p>\n

I wonder, would Nahla be alive if I hadn\u2019t recruited her?\u00a0 All my workers lived in fear for their lives when they left the Green Zone. Had I painted a target on Nahla and others? Moral injury and moral bruising have become particular topics of interest for me.\u00a0 In July we hope to establish a sports\/trauma therapy retreat for Ukrainian Christians ministering in time of war.<\/p>\n

I am told that any loss can create trauma.\u00a0 Dr. Marc LiVecche\u2019s speaks to both moral injury and something new moral bruising<\/u> in his book, The Good Kill: Just War and Moral Injury.<\/em> [1]<\/a> <\/strong>LiVecche\u2019s insight into moral bruising causes me pause as we set up our Ukrainian retreat.<\/p>\n

He writes, \u201cTo mitigate this, I suggest a distinction between moral injury and what I will call moral bruising.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part 1: Peering into the topic<\/strong><\/p>\n

My interest in Moral Bruising is piqued.\u00a0 LiVecche explains, \u201cI want to reserve moral injury for that justified trauma that comes from the guilt of having done something morally wrong.\u00a0 Moral bruising, however, comes not from guilt but from grief,<\/strong> even the grief attending action that is morally right \u2013 as is lawful killing in war \u2013 or morally neutral \u2013 as it is accidental killing.[3]<\/a> (For me a personal revelation).<\/p>\n

LiVecche gives an excellent summary of the entire book within his first chapter.\u00a0 He also identifies a specific goal, LiVecche writes, \u201cFinding avenues through moral trauma and into posttraumatic growth [4]<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>: increased maturity, new wisdom and the like.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

He continues, \u201cIn one sense, therefore, this book is an effort in moral persuasion.<\/strong>\u00a0 I want to help warfighters and those who care for them to reevaluate false beliefs about what it means to kill in war, to interrogate deeply held principles, and, where necessary, to adapt them, reinterpret them, and thereby to grow in wisdom, emotional and spiritual health, and resilience.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

In the flow of his words, several key sentences leap out to me.<\/p>\n

Vindication, he writes, is what is given to one who is proved to have done nothing wrong in the first place.\u00a0 Forgiveness is offered to the guilty. Vindication Is owed to the wrongly accused.[7]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSecondly, and more significantly, we may know that what we have done is not morally blameworthy and yet still suffer moral injury for it, as might occur following an accidental killing for which we are not to blame.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

Unless one were simply heartless, it seems essentially unavoidable that great \u2013 perhaps crippling \u2013 grief would follow.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

There is much to unpack here and I am looking forward to Dr. LiVecche’s talk.\u00a0 I think he will cover this but I am interested in hearing him retell us, “We can say without madness that while all killing is evil, not all killing is sin.\u00a0 Where there is no sin, there is no guilt. (updated (p. 67).<\/p>\n

Part 2 \u2013 What others are saying. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Darren Cronshaw, Australian College of Ministries, Sydney College of Divinity writes in his review of LiVecche’s book.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cHis (LiVecche\u2019s) calls for psychological and spiritual preparation in moral courage and analysis before, during, and after deployment. LiVecche raises critical just war frameworks that add moral protection for the soul in preparation for military engagement, but also points toward the importance of understanding community and reconciliation space for homecoming and post-traumatic growth.\u201d[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

On a parallel track, Nolen Gertz is an Associate Professor of Applied Philosophy at the University of Twente writes in his article Just and Unjust Killing<\/em>, \u201cThrough an investigation into the relationship between death and killing we can then ask, from an existential standpoint, whether we can call any war \u201cjust\u201d so long as\u00a0our evasion of death also results in our <\/em>evasion of what soldiers must go\u00a0through to protect us, thus\u00a0preventing the soldier from being able to\u00a0truly return home. [11]<\/a><\/p>\n

LiVecche discusses pacifists and the Just War concept.\u00a0 He writes, \u201cThe problem is that the only people who might listen to pacifists are not the one hell bent on crushing the innocent.\u201d[12]<\/a>\u00a0 He brings a pacifist, Reinhold Niebuhr into the discussion who surprisingly says, \u201cWe must sometimes kill in order to protect the innocent\u2026 Niebuhr..simply believes killing is sometimes – as in justified war – nevertheless necessary.[13]<\/a><\/p>\n

Epilogue <\/strong><\/p>\n

In his conclusion, LiVecche quotes Kinghorn\u2019s To Relieve the Human Condition<\/em>, \u201cFaith communities, unlike the clinical disciplines, are able to embrace thick and particular conceptions of human flourishing and human failing and are, thereby, equipped much more robustly than the clinical disciplines to facilitate the healing of morally injured veterans.\u201d[14]<\/a><\/p>\n

Essentially, the pastors in this cohort need to digest LiVecche\u2019s words.\u00a0 When and not IF soldiers come home to their churches, pastors and their staffs must be prepared to receive them.<\/p>\n

LiVecche states, \u201cIf, in the concrete, I can contribute to helping just warriors navigate the morally bruising theater of combat without becoming morally injured, I will not have done nothing.\u201d[15]<\/a><\/p>\n

…….<\/p>\n

Nahla was associated with my\u00a0 loose coalition of international soldiers in Iraq. Boris \u2013 Slovak, Gabriel \u2013 Polish, Dimitri – Ukrainian, and Arrigo \u2013 Italian.<\/p>\n

Before the pages turns…. \u201cI am sorry Nahla.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u0627\u0644\u0644\u0647<\/strong> \u064a\u0631\u062d\u0645\u0647\u0627 (Allah yarhamha\/Rest in Peace)<\/strong><\/p>\n

……<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Marc LiVecche, The Good Kill: Just War and Moral Injury<\/em> (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2021).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid.,7<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 7<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid., 4<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid., 4<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid., 6<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid., 4<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Ibid.,5<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Ibid.,6<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Darren Cronshaw, \u201cMarc LiVecche, The Good Kill: Just War and Moral Injury,\u201d Journal of Moral Theology<\/em>, accessed March 25, 2024, https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/115083030\/Marc_LiVecche_The_Good_Kill_Just_War_and_Moral_Injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This calls for psychological and spiritual preparation in moral <\/span> courage and analysis before, during, and after deployment. LiVecche <\/span> raises critical just war frameworks that add moral protection for the <\/span> soul in preparation for military engagement, but also points towards <\/span> the importance of understanding community and reconciliation space <\/span> for homecoming and post-traumatic growth. <\/span> LiVecche artfully links contemporary psychology with ancient <\/span> philosophical and theological wisdom, mixed with the testimony of <\/span> veterans and insights of military ethicists. He navigates the reader <\/span> through pacifism, just war theory, and the realism of \u201ckilling is wrong, <\/span> but in war it is necessary,\u201d pointing to the ethical left and right of the <\/span> arc that guides when it is justifiable.<\/span><\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Nolen Gertz, \u201cJust and Unjust Killing,\u201d Journal of Military Ethics<\/em> 7, no. 4 (2008): 247.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Ibid.,8<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Ibid., 9<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Ibid.,15<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> Ibid.,14<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u0642\u0628\u0644 \u0645\u0627 \u062a\u0646\u0637\u0648\u064a \u0627\u0644\u0635\u0641\u062d\u0629” (qabl ma tantawi as-safha) \u2013 Before the page turns (Iraqi Arabic). Flashback Part 1 Peering into the topic Part 2 What others are saying Epilogue   Flashback She\u2019s dead. Dimitri repeated, \u201cshe\u2019s dead.\u201d\u00a0 Dimi a soldier from Ukraine spoke without feeling, his face frozen.\u00a0 I remember him teasing Nahla a few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2569,3098],"class_list":["post-37051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgpo2","tag-livecche","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37051"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37208,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37051\/revisions\/37208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}