Despite the fact that it is clearly not Saturday, there was the usual modicum of disbelief in the assertion that it is the Day of Prayer and rest. Correspondent Trey Yingst apparently got some sleep after working the first 73 hours of the conflict and other media figures were flown into the region to explain it all to us.

Those transitions always catches us a little off guard, this morning in the week that is not swamped in last week and has an obligation for a little pensive thought and preparations for a new week of work.

But that is tomorrow. We will deal with today as it comes. It is actually a nice autumn day. The Weather Report is pleasant enough for the end of October. Sunny, as opposed to the long desultory rain that punctuated a gray day.

We imagine it is still ‘feeling’ gray over an ocean far away. There is more of that emotional vibration emanating from the eastern Mediterranean. We have dispatched not one but two Aircraft carrier strike groups to do what they normally do, which is steam in imposing circles. That is punctuated by the aggressive launch of airplanes, and usually the same organized but reversed process to bring them safely back to the steel deck.

We think the war started last week, which is to say that is the day we are going to use for the “before” and “after.” The official time and date are reported as “0630, 08 October is when this version of complete chaos started,” which of course it wasn’t. The discussion about the “war” was influenced yesterday by the inconvenient accounting of accidental disclosures.

That would be about the role of Iran, the proud Persians in this latest campaign to control the territory of what three great Faiths view as the Holy Land. We recall wandering across the Temple Mount where a couple holy facilities had been built over the last couple thousand years. Our Israeli guide warned us not to get too close to the Dome of the Rock, a facility holy to a bunch of other people, and marveling that the earth below out feet had been trudged by the feet of another man well regarded by a third faith.

The wrinkle this morning? The Israelis are telling the million-odd residents of the northern portion of the Gaza Strip to pack up and get out. There is a strange inversion that happened at the end of the First Week of War. Word from Palestinian sources is that Israel aggressors had trespassed on Palestinian property and committed acts of horrible inhumanity. Some of the older stories flashed on the flat-screen suggested preparations for the attack had begun a couple months ago and was conducted by Iran’s adherents of a portion of one of the faiths.

Which is to say, followers of the Sunni side of one of the three faiths amounts to about 85% of that religion. The other side of that one is only two Great Faiths seem largely in agreement on the basics of the faiths they profess, although it is complicated. There are dozens of sects of adherence to the Faith that maintains its Deity as The Son of God. The third of the faiths is the smallest of the three. It is subject to periodic bouts of extreme torment.

The way this one is portrayed this morning features a ruthless attack by the IDF against the peaceful residents of Gaza. You are naturally free to analyze that simple sentence however you please. We went almost a whole week blaming someone else for the events that are so inhumane as to defy belief. There are clearly some additional events that will occur this morning and will be blamed on whoever doesn’t get to the microphone and teleprompter first.

Just to put the footnote at the actual foot of this observation: we are opposed to the murder of anyone innocent. We support good, healthy and long lives for all those who have a little peace and goodwill in their hearts.

That said, though, it is likely to be a long morning regardless of how much residual goodwill you have been keeping in reserve. We put ours in a zip-lock bag to ensure it remains as fresh as possible over what they say is going to be a long struggle. One part of it is just over 2,000 years in duration, another clocks in at 1,400 years and the third is the oldest of the three, dating back nearly 4,000 years, and is one of our species oldest faiths. That issue is under dispute, but it is safe to say all three of them are to some extent.

We will see how this episode unfolds. We predict there will be some good parts and some horrific ones to go along with them. From a historical perspective, we think we are on solid ground with that analysis, you know?

Copyright 2023 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com