A call for wisdom and perspective for Iraq -Apr 19, 2004

The situation in Iraq is an affront to Christianity and affects every Christian community, whether by our participation in the countries and societies involved, our fellowship with believers in Iraq, the credibility of our evangelism and witness among non-Christians, or simply our hearts breaking with the unfolding tragedies of death, kidnappings, wounded families and damaged communities.

In a time of spiritual warfare when truth is being manipulated and innocent people are caught in lethal crossfires, Christian response is shaped by the teachings of Ephesians 6:11-16. Having put on the belt of truth, we need to speak the truth about what we see in Iraq.

The current war in Iraq began under questionable political circumstances.

With all the U.S.'s attempts to appear to be the legitimate power in Iraq, our presence there is still the result of an illegal invasion. As a nation, we and our ad hoc coalition had the power to present the world, in effect, with a fait accompli - but as every child is taught, "might does not make right."

The language of "terrorism" is not being used by our government in a helpful way. Terrorism is the use or threat of lethal force (whether by "us" or "them") against civilians for political purpose. Attacks on occupying soldiers, however regrettable, is not terrorism. There is indeed a rising level of genuine terrorism in Iraq, but in the past there has been little or no evidence of Iraqi involvement in global terrorism. As the forces of Osama bin Laden exploit U.S. errors in Iraq, however, such evidence may increase.

Overall, there is an astounding lack of wisdom and perspective among those responsible for deciding U.S. policy in Iraq.

We have lost the ability to reflect on long-term consequences or question our own assumptions. Our operating assumptions seem to be, "If it is a U.S. decision, it must be correct" and "If someone disagrees with us, they deserve to be arrested or shot." It is easy to forget that, for thousands and perhaps millions of Iraqis, even those who thought our original intervention against Saddam Hussein was justified, we have long since become trespassers, and our financial involvements in Iraq seem to confirm the most cynical possible interpretations of why we prolong our stay.

The U.S. siege and attack on Fallujah broke every civilized understanding of policing. Yes, four murders were committed. Rather than doing normal detective work, involving listening to community leaders, developing sources, testing alibis and so on, U.S. forces surrounded the city and demanded the surrender of the perpetrators. Those who resisted this display of great-power arrogance have had their humanity cancelled and are now legitimate targets. How have we allowed the line between those we are there to liberate and those we are there to kill become so blurred? Did six hundred or a thousand people, _whether or not they approve of us and our occupation_, deserve to die in the process of enforcing this barbaric method of criminal investigation?

In the case of the al-Mahdi Army and its leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, we face a challenge to our claim to be the sole arbiter of legitimate force in Iraq. If we were not occupiers, this militia would be an Iraqi problem, not an American one. Public confrontations on the scale of our announced intention to kill or capture al-Sadr are not productive even within the U.S. culture, to say nothing of a delicate cross-cultural and cross-religious situation.

In the service of bringing democracy to Iraq, we are sending incredibly mixed messages.

For example, "due process" is a cornerstone of democratic judicial practice, but thousands of arrested Iraqis disappear into a detention system that cannot satisfactorily account for them to their relatives, cannot give them a court date or a definite process to determine guilt or innocence, does not redress grievances for damage caused by violent arrests, mistaken identities, or other miscarriages of justice.

I believe in praying for our leaders, and I pray daily for President Bush. By this prayer, I intend to hold myself accountable for remembering his humanity, his need for wisdom and protection, and my own responsibility for speaking truthfully to and about him. What do I do with my sense of outrage as an American citizen of reasonable intelligence, when this president explains to us that the situation in Iraq can be analyzed as follows? -"We've got tough work there because, you see, there are terrorists there who would rather kill innocent people than allow for the advance of freedom. That's what you're seeing going on. These people hate freedom. And we love freedom."

I'm sorry, this is not acceptable as an analysis of a situation where my tax dollars are being used to kill people in large numbers. Do U.S. citizens and the citizens of the Middle East really believe that there are people who simply have a pathological hatred of freedom, who have no grievance against the USA that we are obligated to listen to, but simply "hate freedom" and prefer killing people to letting them have freedom? In public, our president shows no capacity to reflect, to empathize with those conservative Muslims for whom American "freedom" looks like pornography, decadence, objectification of women, trespassing on Islam's holy lands, and approval of Israel's treatment of Palestinians. I don't believe all these complaints are completely justified, but I yearn for the U.S. to gain the respect that would be ours if we simply demonstrated (at our leadership level) the capacity to analyze and empathize more deeply than "they hate freedom and we love freedom."

Another awkward responsibility of leadership is to admit mistakes and modify policies when necessary. Again in this current situation, we hear the old excuse that to change course would lead our enemies to question our resolve. However, our "resolve" to kill people rather than admit errors also affects our reputation on the world stage.

Finally, Christians are under the command to "love our enemies." I question whether all those we have killed in Iraq were genuine enemies, but I do grant that Iraq contains enemies of the U.S. I would like to suggest that the first step in loving these enemies would be to put forth a little more effort in understanding their grievances and their case against our domination and economic colonization of their country.

Johan Maurer
Woodbrooke College, Birmingham