America Considers Military Response to “Gruesome Attacks” in Iraq

what American officials described as "gruesome attacks on four American civilians" whose burned bodies were dragged through the streets of the town of Fallujah. This latest violence came amid a discussion among American missionary workers about their safety in the volatile country.

"It’s going to be deliberate, it will be precise and it will be overwhelming," U.S. General Mark Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad. He said that insurgents in Fallujah should be prepared for American forces to strike back following the killing of the four American contractors, who were ambushed in their car. "It will be at the time and the place of our choosing. We will hunt down the criminals. We kill them or we will capture them."

The well informed Associated Press (AP) news agency said family members had identified the identities of three of the victims of Wednesday’s attack as Army veterans Jerko ‘Jerry’ Zovko, 32, from Ohio, and Michael Teague, 38, from Tennessee; and a former Navy SEAL, Scott Helvenston, 38.

Zovko, who joined the Army in 1991 at age 19, spoke five languages fluently — English, Croatian, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. He was a member of the special forces in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, his brother, Tom Zovko, reportedly said. Teague was a 12-year Army veteran who earned a Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan and also served in Panama and Grenada, his wife, Rhonda, said in a prepared statement released by AP.

FITNESS PROMOTER

Helvenston lived in Leesburg, Fla., before joining the Navy when he was 17. He served with the Navy SEALs for 12 years and later worked as a fitness promoter, starting a company called Amphibian Athletics. He also was an actor and stunt man for movies like "Face/Off" and "G.I. Jane," according to a company Web site. In addition he was on USA Networks’ reality series "Combat Missions," produced by Mark Burnett, the creator of "Survivor," AP reported.

Their deaths came just about two weeks after American Christians died and growing fear among Iraqi Christians who Muslim militants have identified as supporting the American-led occupation of the country. Four Southern Baptist aid workers were killed by unknown attackers in Iraq March 15, and Baptist Press said the attacks against them and ongoing violence has added to a debate among churches about missionary work in Muslim countries
and other volatile areas.

"To be fair, some of the most pointed questions over the last 15 months have not come from open opponents of evangelical missions. They’ve come instead from friends, church members and others "in the family" who are struggling with anger and confusion about a world seemingly gone mad," observed Erich Bridges, a senior writer with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board whose column appears twice each month in Baptist Press (BP).

SOMEPLACE SAFE?

"Things have changed, they reason. Isn’t it time to reconsider the wisdom of sending our best and brightest into dangerous places? If people don’t want us there, why don’t we bring the missionaries home — or at least send them to someplace safe?", he quoted church members as saying. But "nowhere is ‘safe,’" said Wendy Norvelle, associate vice president of the International Mission Board, according to BP. "We’ve got people who use the Madrid subway. We’ve got people in Haiti. We’ve got people in Africa. Almost anywhere there’s violence or unrest, we’ve got people there."

Southern Baptists lost eight international workers to terrorist bullets and bombs since Dec. 30, 2002, BP Press reported. However "to put it into some perspective, at least 29 Roman Catholic mission workers were killed last year alone, according to the Vatican. Both of these numbers are tiny fractions of the total number of believers who die or suffer for their faith each year," Bridges explained. Yet, international aidworkers, including Christians, have said it will become difficult to operate in in Iraq.

Not to be in places of potential risk, however, is disobedient to Christ, Bridges explained. "He is there, working through His followers to heal the hurting and give hope to the hopeless." Bridges recalled how after the recent devastating Madrid train bombing, missionaries who live in the area went among the shocked people of the city to pray, join them in grief and find ways to minister. One missionary, prayer with a friend along the train platform, found a young woman on her knees crying convulsively.

KNEELING DOWN

"We both knelt down," he was quoted as saying. "I told her that we were Christians and would like to pray for her. She gave no reply except the unashamed sobbing that was surely for a lost one. When we finished praying she looked up and said, ‘Help me, help me,’ and I asked, ‘How?’ She gave no reply, but then said, ‘How could they? How could they?’ I had no answer. She just reached out to hold my hand and my heart broke for her.

"For what seemed like 15 minutes I knelt with her in an embrace while she did nothing but cry, and I began to cry. Then she asked me, ‘Where is my God?’ … I began to share the Gospel with her and tell her that God, loving us so much, became a man named Jesus to pay for our sins so that we could have fellowship with Him.

"Christ whispered these words in my ear: ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.’ In that moment, I realized what being a missionary is all about…. I found out later that her name was Mary and she was from Switzerland. Her boyfriend ‘exploded in the train,’ as she put it in her broken English.

"Was her life changed that night on the platform not far from the death place of her boyfriend? I know that I cannot answer for her. But God has changed my life for letting me bear some of that pain with her those few minutes, in His name and for His glory," the missionary said. BP suggested the missionaries’ struggle will remain crucial, no matter where, from Spain to Iraq.