There has been some speculation on these threads about the death toll in Libya as a result of the recent action there.  And how much of that was caused by NATO bombs.  The New York Times has a long article about it.  

A search of the web shows that as of last April, sources on all sides were saying the death toll in Libya was at least ten thousand to thirty thousand. By mid August. sides were considering the possibility of 50 thousand. And still counting. That seems high for a humanitarian mission. And it doesn't count at least double that number maimed.

This is a day that will go down in infamy. So said Roosevelt when Japan attacked without declaring war.

The trouble with the ten commandments is that they don't really cover much. And that leaves some terrible gaps for selected readings from The Bible, or an sermons.

For example, The commandments say thou shalt not kill. But we all know there are times when its okay to kill (and when a Canadian chaplain can say, "Our troops are doing a great job."  So we wouldn't ever expect a sermon on that topic.

How have we gone from protecting civilians to bombing raids on Gadaffi? How do we know who the "rebels" really are? It seems like this is headed into another instance of the West intervening in a country where we don't belong! Here we go again. Is dropping bombs on people ever the solution?

The Guardian for May 30 confirms that western troops are on t he ground in Libya, and have been for some time, working with the rebels.. Some, at least, seem to be British SAS.

That goes way beyond the  UN mandate. So we are almost certainly into a war, and an illegal one.

When I taught military history, I used to talk about the sort of thing that gets talked about on Nov 11, how over a hundred thousand Canadian died in the  twentieth century to, among other things, ensure that we, the Canadian people, would decide when and where to go to war.

It's on.... Canada's in... where is it leading... what's next?