The Devil Came on Horseback - book

Grandpa looks away, gust of wind
blows infant in stroller into 10 feet
of 42 degree water, child survives.


This book by Brian Steidle, with help from his sister, Gretchen Steidle Wallace, will give you a good idea of just how terrible the genocide in Darfur is, and how impossible it is to deal with, especially with the disinterest that seems to be characteristic of the international community.

Brian Steidle, a former U.S. Marine officer, was one of only three Americans hired by the African Union to document the situation in that troubled part of the world. He did this in photographs as well as prose, and is now engaged in lecturing about this obvious genocide in an attempt to get something meaningful done about it. As you doubtless know, not much is being done. I guess there is no oil there and some of the people he approaches seem to take the position, “why should we care if Africans want to kill each other?” This is another terribly sad commentary on the human condition that seems to continue to be: Murder, Arson, Plunder, and Rape. While the book does describe the horrors taking place there in some detail, and this is, of course, an important and necessary task, the book is flawed I think by the egocentricity of the author. It becomes almost a book about him, rather than the plight of the people of Darfur. Before you get to the meat of the book you have to get through his difficulties in traveling and accommodations, malaria, and even his wisdom teeth. And then it seems to be always what he does, how he intervenes and deals with his superiors, and how he feels about the situation. I suppose this might be inevitable in a book of this kind but I found it to be overly self-centered. It does, however, eventually give you a good picture of just how terrible the situation is, and, unfortunately, how little is being done about it. It is certainly not a pretty picture with innocent people, including women and children, being burned alive, shot, clubbed, stabbed, raped, mutilated, and all of the acts you might think should be completely foreign to human beings and human life. But, alas, we know by now, they are not, and these despicable acts of senseless brutality are continuing right into the nightmare years of the 21st century. I continue to believe there is a fatal flaw in the human species, a flaw that gives a lie to even the very idea of “intelligent design.” Not recommended for the overly sensitive or squeamish (although it could have been far, far worse).

Will he events of this coming Tuesday in Pennsylvania finally curb the Clintons? Will the good people of that state see through the lies and deceits of the Clinton campaign and vote for Obama? How I hope so! Obama may turn out to be not as great as we hope, but “he’s the only game in town.” I don’t have a buffalo skull so I can’t make a prayer to the Great Mystery. I do have a deer skull, do you think a prayer to the Little Mystery might help?

LKBIQ:
“Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
Voltaire