A small group of men, playing God in a Ryder rental truck, have delivered death and destruction to hundreds of Americans in Oklahoma City.
It could have been any one of us in that building whose life was pointlessly snuffed out, but what seems to outrage us most are the deaths and injuries to the children in the building's day care center.
What kind of person would kill children for any cause?
The answer, sadly, is all of us.
War-makers in this country -- acting in our names -- and others around the world have always killed children when the desire to make war exceeds the desire to make peace.
In the Second World War, this country and its allies launched massive air raids on cities in Germany. In Cologne and Dresden, tons of incendiary bombs burned thousands of persons alive -- including children. Firestorms sucked the air out of subterranean bomb shelters, suffocating those inside -- including the children.
At Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the United States unleashed a weapon that instantaneously incinerated tens of thousands of people -- including children. And among the thousands poisoned by radiation who would die agonizing deaths in the days to come were more children.
Our enemies in that war were no better.
Japan horribly abused China, starving and bombing civilians -- including children.
Germany's Holocaust was directed at "undesirables" of many types -- and their children. We know how much these young people loved life. One of them, Anne Frank, left us her diary.
In Viet Nam, the U.S. may have killed more than a million Vietnamese with bombing raids and "pacification" programs. And again, children were victims.
In the Gulf War, both sides claimed the other had killed civilians, including children. Both sides were probably right.
The Third World is no better. In Somalia and Rwanda millions of people are caught up in factional fighting. Many have been brutally slaughtered, and others have become wandering refugees, countless thousands dying from starvation and disease. Many of them are children.
The developed nations of the world abuse children when we abuse the environment.
In the former Soviet Union, reckless use of nuclear power led to the disaster at Chernobyl. The number of victims from this accident may never be known, but it will inevitably include children.
In most of the world's urban areas political corruption and the pursuit of profit cause our children to breathe filthy air and live in dirty and dangerous neighborhoods.
So the faces of the Oklahoma City children -- injured, dying or dead -- that we see in our newspapers and on our televisions are nothing new. They are only the latest in a long line of young persons that we all claim to cherish but readily sacrifice on an altar of stupidity, or greed or politics or rage.
Until we learn to truly love our planet and each other there will always be more dead children.