This morning

I was hurt - my motherly soul was injured. As I listened to NPR on the way into work they began talking about a missile attack by Israel on a group of cars trying to leave Lebanon. I listened to them talk about how the civilians in Southern Lebanon are being warned to leave, but they are being attacked as they leave. I was fine - none of it seemed out of the ordinary, I mean we are talking about the Middle East. Then I heard her cry. One of the 3 cars that was hit had a family in it - Mom, Dad, Son, Daughter, and others. The little girl is who I focused in on. It killed her dad and her uncle(?), burned her and her brother severely, made her mother deaf, and broke several of her and her brother's bones. She was screaming. You could hear the pain, or at least I could. This little girl was 8 months old. 8 MONTHS old. I find myself wondering what I would feel like if I were the mother standing - deaf - over my broken son and daughter. Watching them scream and cry out in pain. I would be asking myself why. WHY? Because my government did something I may or may not agree with. Because power is so important that it doesn't matter who suffers in the pursuit of it.
I now find myself thinking that this world would be a much better place if things were decided by mothers. If the government had to go to a council of mothers before making war of any sort. If when innocent children were killed it was the mothers they had to answer to. I have to believe the world would be a better place. I mean what mother could look at another mother and tell her that the children in her country are less important, and that if they happen to accidentally be injured in attacks its ok. NONE! No mother could say that to another.
Even now I am bothered by that little girls cry. I am caught imagining it is my darling Joey instead of some stranger. What would I do? What would you do?