http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/policy/securityspending/articles/supplemental_war_funding/

The way I see it, sending the Bibles is a way of providing words of encouragement, words of hope, words of comfort that all the food, clothing, and other material goods cannot provide.

If someone should be comforted by the words written in the Bible, why should that rub you the wrong way?

On the other hand, why only Bibles? Someone mentioned other books. Books contain words. They contain words of wisdom and experience gained from the writer’s pain, triumph, loss, despair and hope… or simply just facts and pragmatic views from one’s perspective. What encourages one may not encourage another. Perhaps you can write your own words of encouragement and send them to the troops.

I am imagining how I would feel if I were in the shoes of a soldier in the war. Provided that my basic needs are met, no amount of food or clothing could comfort me the way the words of someone who seems to understand my thoughts…who seems to think like I do…can.

Call me crazy, but maybe they would rather have a lead vest? Just because it happened on the Simpsons does not make it true.

I heard a few years ago that they weren’t being supplied with enough Kevlar vests. I don’t know whether or not it’s still a problem (assuming it was in the first place, which wouldn’t surprise me).

On the other hand – how many billions of dollars has the government paid to Halliburton?

“Pretty miraculous,” Carrot agreed.

“Yeah, it was, I s’pose,” said the sergeant. He looked ruefully at the battered volume. “Shame about the other seventeen arrows, really.”

(Jingo, Terry Pratchett)

I don’t know if this is such a bad thing. Haven’t you heard all of the stories about people whose lives have been saved when their pocket bibles stopped a bullet?

Call me crazy, but maybe they would rather have a lead vest? Just because it happened on the Simpsons does not make it true.

Oh yeah, I forgot.

Nice false dilemma, there…

Most soldiers are trained to be unthinking robots who obey orders. Most of them also come from the Midwest where Protestantism prevails.

Wrong. Try joining the military instead of spouting arbitrary “facts” out of your ass.

I was active Army and went into the reserves after my last deployment ended last year. Soldiers are trained to follow orders, but “unthinking robots” would quickly get themselves and others killed. Thinking is all every good soldier does… Your ignorance makes me sick.

I am an atheist and was when I was in Iraq. I think I was the only openly atheist person in my entire battalion, but the vast majority of my unit could have cared less about the topic in general.

When we were getting ready to redeploy, we had briefings at the chapel (biggest place for meetings). I noticed shelves full of Bibles with a few Books of Mormon, Korans, and Jewish texts.

They are religious and would have brought their holy book of [choice if] it mattered

Exactly. I mean duh people.

We got care packages every few days. Our clerk would just put them in our break room and we would tear through them. Many were from Church groups with everything from Bibles and devotionals to homemade crosses. ALL OF THAT went into the garbage which was subsequently burned. We basically only keep the food and the magazines. We also threw away homemade food if we didn’t know who made it.

I would just recommend that people send their care packages (full of pre-packaged food or candy and other useful things) to Afghanistan. Iraq has a well-developed infrastructure of roads and cities. This means its a lot easier to supply PXs (“Post Exchange” – basically a small store) in Iraq than in Afghanistan. So soldiers can buy anything they need there from soap and DVDs to Doritos and Dr Pepper. They DONT NEED CARE PACKAGES. Afghanistan is different. There are many small FOBs that can only be accessed by helicopter. Those guys could use some help.

Nothing. But, of course, I didn’t write a blog post about how what some people are doing isn’t as good as it could be.

Hemant basically said that even though the soldiers may want Bibles, they probably want some other things more than they want Bibles. But then he goes on (and this is where I have a problem) to criticize the group for not doing enough. (That is, he says they are giving the soldiers something they may want but they could be giving them something they want even more.) The same criticism could be said to you – “the soldiers may want their magazines and snacks, but you’re telling me that they all want that in lieu of ______”? (insert something they may want more than magazines and snacks)

“Do you think that prayer and God’s Love will keep them from getting hungry or from missing their homes and families?”

No.

“Or worse yet, prayer is what keeps people safe?”

No.

A bunhc of Bibles probably would sustain them. They probably wouldn’t even have to open them. They just need to know the books are there.

Sad but true.

Most people aren’t smart enough to handle a world without a personal deity.

We have a LONG way to go.