Maybe Jesus would bomb the Syrians
Cause they're not Jews like him
Maybe Jesus would bomb the Afghans
On some kind of vengeful whim
Maybe Jesus would drive an M1 tank
And he would shoot Saddam
Tell me, who would Jesus bomb?

I’m not sure when I first heard this song from David Rovics, but it’s stuck with me ever since.

I know I was in Afghanistan at the time, working on post-conflict reconstruction, an idealist with a mortgage, still believing (most days) that we were doing some good.

I suppose we did.

We weren’t bombing anyone, although people that looked more like me than my Afghan colleagues were doing so in the name of freedom.

You can’t put a price on freedom, but you sure as hell can invoice a funeral.