Tonight I went to a church dinner. As usual there were many senior citizens there. They started swapping stories about life in WWII. Most were only children then. Some of the stories were about German POWs that were encamped in the mid west.
All of the stories were positive. We were kind to German prisoners. We allowed them to do farm work during the war. German farm hands were hard workers and often became attached to the families they served. When war ended many resisted being sent back.
Not content to leave a tender moment alone, I interjected, "so why didn't we do something like that, instead of Abu grab." The table fell silent. Sorry for bringing politics to Church. I should know better by now.
But would be so awful about trying to kill some of these "enemy combatants" with kindness? We did it in WWII. It was good for everybody. Maybe kindness would spread democracy better than torture.