This week’s news cycle contains some strange, some troubling, and even some bizarre stories, including a tragic story of a 12-year-old girl who died in a schoolyard fight. A man from Kenya who was caught trying to smuggle 2,000 ants, designer trendy ants, and sell them to bougie Asian collectors who wanted them as exotic pets.
There’s more revelations from the Epstein files indicting certain people, calling into question the elites power and their accountability or lack thereof. But the one story that rises to the top in my mind and probably in yours is the increasing and ongoing conflict between the United States and Israel and Iran. Watch this. Overnight, Iran focused its attacks on the lifeblood of the region.
Small boats packed with explosives slamming into these oil tankers off the coast of Iraq. In Bahrain, fuel depots burned. The Bahraini government warning people to stay indoors to avoid inhaling poisonous fumes. Critical energy sites in Oman were also targeted. >> An Iranian drone film dive bombing into a storage facility in a direct hit.
Also under fire, the Gulf’s commercial infrastructure as another luxury high-rise in Dubai is struck by a drone. While many stories can create outrage or curiosity, war creates real consequences. Consequences not just for governments, but for families like yours and mine. and not just families in America, but also the families in Iran and the families in Israel and the Iranianamean and Israeli-American families who have relatives in these places.
And so, while the news often talks about war in terms of militaries and armies and governments where it’s felt perhaps most deeply, it’s going to be at my own kitchen table and yours. It’s going to be in our own living rooms. So, I want to talk about what’s happening and I want to talk about how we as the family of faith ought to respond. So, here’s a quick recap.
On February 28th, the US and Israel launched joint attacks against the Iranian military and the goal was to take out their naval fleet and take out their nuclear capabilities. Iran’s supreme leader was killed and much of his leadership team was also eliminated. And then Iran responded with missile attacks, drones, bombs on Israeli and US targets throughout the region.
So the bottom line is that at the moment things are still extremely volatile and the concern is retaliation, escalation, and more nations joining into the conflict. So, while it might be tempting to think that this is a war that is just over there somewhere and geographically contained to Iran, the truth is it’s not.
