Choices

A couple weeks ago, I ran across this book at Borders. As its title indicates, it is a military history of the Iraq war. I have thought about buying it since I think it would interesting to know what the actual strategy was for the war. We pretty much kicked ass in the actual war--it was the aftermath that was a complete mess.

In any case, I flipped through the book and came across this image:


This is a stunning picture. I stopped flipping and stared at it for several moments. It is a picture of a bomb damage assessment being performed on an Iraqi building targeted by the US Air Force during the war. The building was hit with a 5000 pound bomb which penetrated the roof and ceiling and exploded inside. In the bottom right corner is a soldier assessing the damage caused by the bomb.

According to the book, with weapons such as the one used on this building, assessing damage was difficult from the air since the exterior of some buildings did not show much damage. That is why ground teams were sent to targets to report on the damage.

I want to contrast that image with this one:


This is the interior of the Pantheon in Rome. The Pantheon was built in 125 A.D. under Hadrian. It was built as a temple for all the gods, hence pan + theo. It has been in continuous use since it was built, and was converted to a Catholic church in the 7th century. For the first 1200 years of its existence, the Pantheon was the largest masonry dome in the world. It is a masterpiece of architecture and one of the great buildings of the world.

I will leave you to consider the comparison between these two pictures and these two buildings, but I would like to say that we have choices available to us in this world.