Terror : Part of Public Health

Imagine riding a bus in Atlanta, Miami or Denver. You are going to the mall to meet your mates and hang out. About 10 minutes into your ride a "blast" rips through the bus throwing you backward. You cut your face on glass, the back of your head on the post behind you. You can't hear clearly due to the blast "ring" in your ears and you are bleeding profusely all over yourself. Your new boots are ruined. You can't find your smashed cell phone on the floor 10 feet back. The man sitting in front of you is more injured and unconscious.

That's sort of what happened in Tel Aviv today. I don't have a dog in this fight. I have no family or political ties to Israel or the Gaza Strip. But it's difficult to imagine living that way; living the reality that rockets are falling from the sky and buses can blow up at any time. This is the reality in Israel today.

And that made me wonder why my Syrian born colleague (a foreign/international medical graduate or FMG/IMG), gaining a great future in medicine training in the U.S., pondered out loud about the "villain and murdering Israelis". Why is it that some believe there should be equal mayhem and death on both sides for there to be a fair fight. That's what he explained.

So I asked our campus police, an officer at a nearby table at lunch..."Does engagement with a terrorist require that the police lose as many officers, killed, as the terrorist they confront on the street?" He laughed. And I already knew the answer. Defense of freedom, justice, democracy and rule of law does not require fair. It requires "superior force" to stop the aggressor. Center mass stops. That is what the hospital police officer said.

It is regrettable that modern terrorist organizations use civilians as shields to deploy arms. As careful as any protective force can be, injuries and death to civilians will then happen. I hate that part about modern warfare viz. a vie, Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan etc etc. It's the reality of urban combat and there are no easy answers. But let's not confuse who the aggressor and who the protectors are in any such conflict.

My Syrian colleague and I will remain colleagues and I trust him not to blow up the hospital. I'm not sure my colleagues in Tel Aviv today feel the same confidence in their neighbors. I pray this Thanksgiving for peace and rational clarity at what is really happening in the Middle East and in many corners of the world. I'm thankful for many things, but in this day, I'm very thankful for "superior force", a center mass mentality and safe bus rides to the mall.