Forget parsing the meanings of “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide”. An eye for an eye may be moral for some, but 60 eyes for two should be wrong for everyone.
Don’t you hear them?
Children’s screams rising from the flames
carried by winds out to sea
where they drift down and are carried by waves
to wash up as whispers upon our shores?
“Stop the bombs, please end this war”
Can you not hear? Can you not hear?
From tragedy comes compassion and anger
and from them hopefully knowledge that
revenge may be revenge for another’s revenge for your revenge…. and
death by any bomb – personal or state approved –
is death of a son or daughter
O.K. Our enemies must be brought to justice
But we must bring ourselves into a world
in which we are not alone and above the rest.