A WARNING!

[Joanne98]

The Deadliest Year
By Jim Winkler,
General Secretary, General Board of Church & Society

Editor's Note: Jim Winkler was a speaker at the recent Lake Junaluska Peace Conference, Jan. 31 to Feb. 2. The conference provided an opportunity for dialog on finding the Church's voice in a violent world. Goal of the conference was to encourage participants to be advocates for peace and justice, and to be the reconcilers that Christ wants us to be in our communities. Winkler’s remarks will be presented in two parts: this week and next.

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The War in Iraq is and has been an unmitigated disaster. On March 19, we will mourn the beginning of the sixth year of the war. While the U.S. dead and wounded number many fewer than in World War II and Vietnam, too many thousands of U.S. soldiers and personnel have died, been maimed and wounded.

Last year was the deadliest year for those in uniform. 2,592 Americans, coalition troops, Kurdish peshmerga militias, and Iraqi security forces were killed. The U.S. does not bother to count the number of Iraqi dead, which number in the hundreds of thousands.

The so-called surge in U.S. forces in Iraq has been a failure. Vast numbers of Iraqis continue to die and daily life remains miserable for Iraqis.

The so-called surge
in U.S. forces in Iraq
has been a failure.

The sad fact is that conditions are so bad in Iraq due to our invasion that life was better under Saddam Hussein — and that was an era of fear and misery. You have to work hard to make this a reality. To accomplish such a terrible feat, you have to spend hundreds of billions, perhaps trillions of dollars. You have to kill a lot of people and force millions from their homes into refugee status. You have to lie and cheat and steal.

We hear the surge has been successful in the sense that Iraqi tribal leaders have joined forces with the U.S. against al Qaeda in Iraq. A U.S. military officer recently said that, in effect, we’re paying them not to kill us. This is not the sound basis for an alliance.

Recently, a number of tribal leaders have been assassinated for their collaboration with the occupying forces. If this continues, I suspect we’ll see this marriage of convenience crumble. Just yesterday, dozens died when two suicide bombers struck markets in Baghdad.

Most of the attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq do not come from al Qaeda, they come from Iraqis who do not want their land occupied by foreign military forces. And even in Baghdad where most of the additional U.S. forces have been concentrated, American and Iraqi leaders cannot venture forth from the Green Zone without fear of being assassinated.

Let us not forget this war was planned well in advance of 9/11. It is well-documented that neoconservative organizations like the Project for a New American Century promoted war against Iraq throughout the 1990s. Their leadership followed George Bush into the White House and masterminded the war. President Bush’s first treasury secretary, Paul O’Neill, revealed that the invasion of Iraq was discussed at the National Security Council within days of President Bush’s inauguration.

Let us not forget this war was planned well
in advance of 9/11.
Just last week, a study by the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism counted 935 false statements in interviews, speeches, briefings and other venues by the Bush Administration prior to the war. On at least 532 occasions, President Bush or his officials stated flat out that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction, or was trying to produce them, or had links to al Qaeda, or both.

The study concluded, “The cumulative effect of these false statements — amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts — was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to the war.”

It was difficult to stand up to this hurricane force and a great many of our church leaders failed to do so. How many false statements were made from the pulpits and in the Sunday school classes of United Methodist churches in the months before the war? We beat the drums of war, too.

Before the war, a United Methodist pastor serving one of our congregations wrote to tell me that Jesus supported war and condoned the use of violence. He pointed out that Jesus had acted violently in overturning the tables in the Temple and authorized His disciples to carry swords to Gethsemane. The pastor then said, “But then, I forget, you don’t take the Bible literally — you decide what it says for yourself.”

But as Paul Harvey says, "Here's the rest of the story": Yes, they carried swords to Gethsemane. When a disciple used his, though, Jesus intervened and, in fact, healed the wound inflicted. That's the Savior I know and love: healer, peacemaker. I believe Jesus' actions speak as loudly as his words.

Many did stand against the hysteria and nationalist conformity that preceded this war. They have been proved right by their words of caution and peace. Our bishops have spoken repeatedly against the war. Even in the midst of their powerful calls for the war to end, 109 of our bishops signed a statement of repentance two years ago acknowledging they did not speak up early enough due to our focus on institutional maintenance.

A letter to the editor in one of our annual conference newspapers recently said, in part: “I have always firmly believed that our pastors and bishops were supposed to remain neutral and not get involved in politics,” but in the same letter the writer states, “we should be supporting the president of the United States in our decisions.” Hmmmm.

We are in the midst
of a tragedy of historic proportions.
This war must end. We are in the midst of a tragedy of historic proportions, and we will be castigated in some quarters for raising the banner of peace. So it has always been.

We have invaded a country, made the local people angry, and then said we will not leave until they’re no longer angry with us. The U.S. must leave Iraq so that Iraq can begin the process of healing because the United States of America cannot fix Iraq. We cannot bring peace to Iraq. We cannot bring democracy to Iraq. But we can stop bombing and killing the people of Iraq.

The war in Iraq must end and we will continue to work for that end.

Date: 2/1/2008
©2005-2008
http://www.umc-gbcs.org/site/apps/nl/content.asp?c=frLJK2PKLqF&b=3879657&ct=5011021&tr=y&auid=3360076

[gateley]

1. K&R - Thank you. nt

[Joanne98]

2. WELCOME!