An Open Letter From the Trappist Nuns in Syria

I wish I could post this whole letter.
Please read the quote and then go to the site and read the whole thing.
These nuns get right to it .... they are prayerful ... but starkly honest ...

Catholic World Report - Letter from Trappist Nuns in Syria - Blood Fills Our Streets, Our Eyes, Our Heart

Part of the letter ...

Will they make us breathe the toxic gases of the depots they hit, tomorrow, so as to punish us for the gases we have already breathed in? The people are straining their eyes and ears in front of the television: all they’re waiting for is a word from Obama!

A word from Obama? Will the Nobel Peace Prize winner drop his sentence of war onto us? Despite all justice, all common sense, all mercy, all humility, all wisdom?

The Pope has spoken up, patriarchs and bishops have spoken up, numberless witnesses have spoken up, analysts and people of experience have spoken up, even the opponents of the regime have spoken up…. Yet here we all are, waiting for just one word from the great Obama? And if it weren’t him, it would be someone else. It isn’t he who is “the great one,” it is the Evil One who these days is really acting up.

The problem is that it has become too easy to pass lies off as noble gestures, to pass ruthless self-interest off as a search for justice, to pass the need to appear [strong] and to wield power off as a “moral responsibility not to look away…”

Sharp words from nuns, eh??

These nuns work with people of all political and religious ideals in Syria. They are aware of the bad that is there, but they also are aware of the bad that will happen if Obama bombs the country. They ask for prayer ... "abounding, heartfelt, courageous prayer." And they REALLY don't want Obama to bomb Syria.

The sad thing is, this kind of thing needs to be front & center in the MSM, to show what we're really being perceived as over there. I guarantee it's not "saviors" or "liberators" at all.

I think the most prescient part of the letter is this:

Yet here we all are, waiting for just one word from the great Obama? And if it weren’t him, it would be someone else.

That sums-up the state of affairs in this country. We need a housecleaning. A big, big housecleaning.

reply to post by yeahright

I saw that. I was looking through the comments.
The latest poll I saw this morning said that 91% of Americans are against going into Syria.
The comments at the bottom of the letter from the nuns match that ...
stating that there is no 'good side' to this war.
NO ONE EXCEPT A HANDFUL IN WASHINGTON want to go to war.
(and it is war ....)
Washington should listen to these nuns who live in Syria.

reply to post by jtma508


I was surprised by the language of the nuns. I've never heard a nun speak so strongly like that.
I wish Washington would read this and read the comments people have left.
There is no 'good side' to this war. And helping one side just helps the evil on the other.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
reply to post by yeahright

 

I saw that. I was looking through the comments.
The latest poll I saw this morning said that 91% of Americans are against going into Syria.
The comments at the bottom of the letter from the nuns match that ...
stating that there is no 'good side' to this war.
NO ONE EXCEPT A HANDFUL IN WASHINGTON want to go to war.
(and it is war ....)
Washington should listen to these nuns who live in Syria.

edit on 9/4/2013 by FlyersFan because: (no reason given)

I have never been a war monger and all I see is our involvement in the middle east making things worse.

Purposely !

reply to post by FlyersFan


I just read the letter, heartbreaking.

reply to post by FlyersFan

They shame me and should shame Obama though I am against the military intervention those who did this must be brought to justice but not by killing more innocent people.

Thank you so much for sharing this. It's horrible to think that the ladies who wrote this may very well be killed soon, and it will be passed off as a noble cause just as they stated.

If (when) Washington gives the go ahead for this...I can't think of a more defining moment to act on our obligation as Americans to overthrow our government.

Even the general uninformed population sees right through this, and they're vocal about it. Washington's response is "Screw you, we do what we want. Now be quiet and do what we tell you. Democracy!"

My heart goes out to everyone in Syria whatever their beliefs.

What gets me is that by the time Obama gets his desire for blood Assad and all the people he thinks he will kill will be long gone and hiding. Once its over out they will come out. Obama will only kill the innocent ones with his missiles. The guy is a fool to have started this but worse to allow time for the people he wants out to go hide.

Another letter from a Syrian lady was doing the rounds a day or so ago and it was again a heart felt plea. Yet I don't think she should ever have been in a position to have to plea for her and her family's lives due to threats from the superpower that credits itself as a force that brings down dictators.

When one man decides a dictator is to go and he decides to bomb the hell out of that man's governmental seat, then whose the actual dictator?

Originally posted by FlyersFan
reply to post by jtma508

 

I was surprised by the language of the nuns. I've never heard a nun speak so strongly like that.

I think we would all have strong language if we faced annihilation.

This letter is heartbreaking and it shows what life is like in Aleppo, Syria. I think our government and even the media makes it seem like they aren't real people, and whatever casualties that occur are just sacrifices for the greater good.
But as this letter shows, they are people just like us trying to care for their children, struggle day-to-day and stay positive, despite awaiting word that they will be destroyed, because we say so.

In addition to what you quoted in the OP, this part gets to me:

Yet what use are words anymore? All has been destroyed: a nation destroyed, generations of young people exterminated, children growing up wielding weapons, women winding up alone and targeted by various types of violence…families, traditions, homes, religious buildings, monuments that tell and preserve history and therefore the roots of a people…all destroyed. …

I think of the people and their history and culture that's about to be wiped out, and how much more anger and hatred (completely justified) that will rise up against us.
I feel helpless to stop it. What can I do? As the nuns said, "What use are words anymore?" No matter how much anyone pleas to representatives, these people will still die. Our "leadership" has said so.

In a world of 7 billion people, including 300 million Americans, no one has the power to stop a rogue few.

reply to post by AlliumIslelily


Those that say one died for a noble cause, in all likelihood, never had to hold that person while they died in their arms. It's not noble at all, it's ugly. It's the most horrific thing you can experience and its not something you'd wish upon your worst enemy if you'd lived through it yourself.

Very moving letter.

Even if they escape the bombing from a 'Nobel Peace Prize Winner' , are they going to be safe under Muslim Brotherhood/Al Qaida. I feel really sorry for the people in Syria.

I read the Syrian nuns letter. It is very moving.

Unfortunately, they and others in the Middle East, are caught in the center of a pivotal movement in world history. This moment began confidentially, if not secretly in the United States in the 1970s when American think tanks and intelligence agencies came to the conclusion that America's continued supremacy in the world depended on securing control of resources in the area extending from North Africa to the Caspian Sea.

The use of chemical weapons in Syria is a puffed up irrelevancy. Citing it as an excuse for military action is a fraud. America itself was a co-participant with Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the largest use of chemical weapons on the battlefield since WW1, when they were employed against massed Iranian troop concentrations in the Iran/Iraq war.

American geostrategic interests have been determined by American planners to require the removal of any independent leader in the region of interest and his/her replacement by a leader compliant to American desires.

They have been attempting to implement this policy throughout the Middle East and North Africa, using the "Arab Spring" as a convenient vehicle. People who have followed developments on ATS know the details.

If it wasn't chemical weapons, another excuse would have been manufactured.

The only thing that could possibly save the Assad regime in Syria is Russian intervention. A Russian "Red Line".

Russia has said that it will not intervene militarily in America's activities in Syria. That's the end of the story. I'm convinced that we will see Assad's regime fall, to be replaced by chaos and the partition of Syria into possibly three regions.

The third and smallest of these regions, the "Kurdish Autonomous" region in the east of Syria will feel pressure to join with Iraqi Kurds in a bid to create a new state, Kurdistan, on the Iranian border and then that state will become the thin edge of the American wedge digging into Iran's western border, to destabilize the government of the mullahs.

I hope I am wrong, but it all makes too much sense in the context of American geo-strategy.

It is a shame that people still think and act this way in the 21st century.

reply to post by FlyersFan

Meanwhile in Syria Assad continues to oppress his people by providing education and a secular religion-free atmosphere for both women and men.

“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” - Malcolm X

Originally posted by mekhanics
reply to post by FlyersFan

 

Meanwhile in Syria Assad continues to oppress his people by providing education and a secular religion-free atmosphere for both women and men.

“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” - Malcolm X

I wanted to reply with this, including the pictures to make this one point:

Anyone else getting Ghadaffi flashbacks?

He looks REALLY open to be such a terrible dictator.

I am so sick of this horsecrap!

You know how its REALLY the end? They don't even bother coming up with convincing lies anymore.

Originally posted by mekhanics

Meanwhile in Syria Assad continues to oppress his people by providing education and a secular religion-free atmosphere for both women and men.

I am more saddened by the fact that American people are asleep ( as George Carlin said, you have to be sleeping to have american dream).

The whole Syrian opposition is funded by Saudi, Qatar and its western mercenaries. What is surprising is that, in Saudi Arabia, woman can't even go out in public without covering their entire body, let alone photograph one without it. This picture clearly shows, woman in Syria is out in public without even a head dress.

When will the american people will wake up?

Originally posted by Nyiah
The sad thing is, this kind of thing needs to be front & center in the MSM, to show what we're really being perceived as over there. I guarantee it's not "saviors" or "liberators" at all.

Yes, but there is a history here, that no one here wants to cop to......and that informs what these nuns believe and profess, herein.

Oh, let's no destroy this "great country" by coming clean with that history. Let's just keep going like we have been, and use every trick in the book to keep blacklisting those individuals whom truly fought, and tried to end just what is described here.

It's not really so black and white, as all of you describe. Say anything, do anything, to save your skin and reputation.....after it's over, in retrospect there will be a reckoning beyond the Catholic Church, or any other church, via nature, controlled or otherwise.....

If more would see this, understand it, perhaps we wouldn;'t be doing this over, time and time again.....
Tetra50
No, I am not a fish. And thanks for all the neon......