Recently in War Category

One of the President Obama's first promises was that he would close Guantanamo Bay.  Closing Gitmo, which has been become a worldwide symbol of American abuse and intertwined with the horrors of Abu Ghraib, has been supported by military leaders and civil liberty activists alike.  But once the rubber actually hit the road, cowardly representatives in congress decided that holding criminals without trial was good enough in far away places but not in their own state.  Fortunately, the Democrats prevailed last week and congress has voted to allow detainees held in Guantanamo Bay onto American soil for prosecution

Republicans in the House have lost a bid to block the transfer of any detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison to the United States.

Instead, the House stood by a Democratic plan to allow suspected enemy combatants held at Guantanamo to be shipped to U.S. soil only to be prosecuted for their suspected crimes. President Barack Obama has ordered the facility closed in January but has yet to offer a plan to accomplish that.

Democratic leaders had to push hard for the win because many lawmakers see political danger in voting to move detainees from Guantanamo. The Republican plan failed on a 193-224 vote.

This is the first step but it can't stop here.  America should have the courage of our convictions.  Bring all the war criminals here to the United States for a triall.  If they are guilty then lock them up and throw away the key. If there is not enough evidence to hold them, then we have to release them.  We have built a massive prison industry in America - largely used to lock up African Americans and the poor.  You can't tell me that we can't find a place for international criminals.  If other states are too chicken to hold those held on suspicion of terrorism then bring them to my state of New Jersey where so many people where affected by the events of 9/11 and the wars.  We'll keep an eye on them.  

Closing Guantanamo is necessary to show the world that we are determined to lead the world not through military might, but in moral righteousness.  Let's do the right thing and close Gitmo.

I am a loyal supporter of your presidency. I worked hard in the campaign and have never been as proud of my country as I was when we elected you.  I'm writing to ask you to find another way ahead in Afghanistan. I wrote a similar letter to President Bush when he was preparing for war in Iraq.

I believe now, as you and I both did then, that war is not the answer. Violence breeds violence, and as Dr. King said, you can murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder. As the apostle Paul said, evil must be overcome with good, which means that violence and hate must be overcome with justice and love, not more of the same.

Obviously, you know things the rest of us don't know. And you have pressures and responsibilities the rest of us don't have. But we have based our lives on the moral principles that guided leaders like Dr. King, Desmond Tutu, and Nelson Mandela. We share a profound faith in a loving, non-violent God. We share a commitment to live in the way of Jesus the peacemaker. That's why escalation is not a change we can believe in.

I don't argue for leaving Afghanistan high and dry as we've done too often in the past. Evil can't be overcome by passivity or abdication, but only by positive good and creative action. In that spirit, I offer this humble proposal:

1. Take the 65 billion we would have spent there in the coming year and turn it into an aid and development fund. If you want to go farther, you could put a value on the cost of American lives that would be lost there (I have no idea how this inestimable cost could be calculated), and add that sum to the fund. 65 billion could build a lot of peace-oriented schools and hospitals in Afghanistan. It could serve as start-up capital for a lot of new businesses and it could pave a lot of roads. It could train a lot of police officers and it could enhance a lot of social infrastructure. It could give hope to a lot of women and girls who currently don't have much hope, and it could provide a lot of constructive outlets for men and boys who right now don't have many options besides picking up a machine gun and joining a warlord.

2. Other nations might contribute to this fund as well, and the fund could be extended into the future based on the number of years our military would have been engaged in Afghanistan. The fund could be administered by the US, or better (in the spirit of international cooperation), an IAEC-like agency could be created, subsidiary to the United Nations, to monitor progress in Afghanistan.

3. Then a set of benchmarks could be set, and the money could be released for development in Afghanistan as the nation reached appropriate benchmarks. This fund would be an enticement to mobilize public opinion in the direction of peace and justice, as people would know that their lives could be substantially improved if their factionalized leaders would start collaborating nonviolently for the common good.

4. With this kind of approach, the people of Afghanistan (and Pakistan) would have two clear choices. Al Queda and other extremists offer violence and unrest. But the international community would be offering support for order, rebuilding, collaboration, justice, and peace. This choice is a much clearer and better one than the choice between two groups of leaders who both depend on violence to achieve their aims.

5. Conservatives could support this kind of approach because it emphasizes personal choice and responsibility among the Afghan people. It would come alongside them in their own nation-building efforts at their own best pace, rather than trying to impose our own nation-building on them at a pace we determine. Progressives could support this approach because it changes the role of the US in the global neighborhood - from reactive bully or intentional dominator to responsible neighbor and partner for the common good.

Mr. President, you have my respect and my prayers at this important time. I believe you have the intelligence and insight to find a creative way to use a new kind of force in the world ... something far more powerful than bombs, guns, and bullets: the generative force of creativity, of justice, of collaboration, and yes, of hope. Can we find a new and better way to help Afghanistan rise out of chaos and complicity with Al Queda? You know the answer many of us will shout and chant: yes, we can.

With respect and hope,
A citizen

www.brianmclaren.net

Praying for peace is not as easy as it sounds.  Praying for peace requires two separate but related beliefs.  The first belief is that prayer 'works' and that our meditations and/or petitions to God can affect the material world and can change our individual and collective lives.  The second conviction is that peace is worthy of the effort of prayer, that peace should be a goal for each person, and not to rest on the more realist (cynical) view that war and conflict are inevitable.  

Today is the International Day of Prayer for Peace and it is a day of hope mixed with...desperation.  Prayer becomes most urgent  in moments when we don't know where else to turn both in our personal lives and, as in the case with this day of peace, in our world. I am involved with an organization called Fellowship in Prayer that was founded 60 years as a response to the urgent crisis posed by the atom bomb which held (and still holds) the possibility of destroying all life on the planet.  Fellowship in Prayer called upon people of goodwill, across all religious traditions, 'East and West,' to come together to pray for peace.  For the last sixty years people in Fellowship in Prayer have been praying for peace, and one could say successfully, as the world has so far avoided nuclear destruction.  Yet given the seemingly intractable conflicts that continue around the world, the need for prayer, and those dedicated to prayer, seems  greater today than ever before.  

On this day many groups from across the religious spectrum are praying for Peace. And even if it is not easy, you too should pray for peace today and every day. Praying for Peace means you are making a spiritual statement that yes, what I do with my spiritual practice matters, that my meditations can change myself, but also have the power to change the world.  Or for me, as a Christian, praying for peace is a faith statement that God does hear our prayers in the hour of our deepest need, that God has a hand in this world, that God can change me, and that God can transform the world - and that God wants peace.  

Praying for peace is one of the most faithful acts one can make.  Jesus said, that those who make and pray for peace will be called the Children of God.  Even if it is not easy - pray for peace!

Here is a prayer that I wrote for those working in International Relations and Statecraft.  It was included in the book Prayers for the New Social Awakening.  And below that you will see the original advertisement for the Fellowship in Prayer from 1949. 

A Prayer for Those Working in International Relations and Statecraft

Sovereign Lord,

We pray for the people who are charged with safeguarding our nation as they bridge culture, race and religion to painstakingly negotiate terms of trade and forge alliances of security.  May they view their task as sacred and be filled with hope, creativity and endurance as they develop bonds among nations that are mutually beneficial and will produce lasting peace and respect among all peoples. Lord, help our leaders to look beyond grand palaces and corporate offices to carefully consider the effects that the policies they are creating will have upon the humble homes of the average citizen around the world.  May America be girded by the spirit of cooperation and generosity that recognizes the needs of others alongside our own so that the entire world might enjoy a common wealth of food, drink, shelter, education and recreation

Lord, may America not succumb to the sin of imperial temptation, rather tether us to our religious commitment of servanthood.  May we use our power in concert with the international community so that we might collectively bring in a new era marked by justice and peace.  Let restraint and compassion stay the cruel hand of war that slays the young and leaves societies broken and bloody.  May cool minds prevail in seasons hot with destructive cycles of revenge.  In combating the evils of this day let us not become what we despise.  Rather hold us fast to our conviction that living without intimidation or deprivation is a human right in our own country as well in others.

God of the Universe, may we forsake the hubris of claiming you as our private possession, but rather may you claim us as we work for reconciliation and the common good.   Lord, may none use religion as a rallying call for national militarism, territorial expansion or terror based on dangerous readings of sacred texts. Rather let us recognize the sacred in other human beings from every nation, class, race or religion.  Help us to love both you and our neighbor and thereby fulfilling the great commandment of your Son Jesus Christ, so that through our efforts for peace we might be known as your children. 

May America and the entire world be blessed by your continued providence in our time and for generations in the future.  May Thy kingdom come, thy will be done throughout the earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Fellowship in Prayer's Original New York Times Ad in December 12, 1949

OUR CALL TO PRAYER

PRAYER

an answer to

"GOD and the ATOM"

The Ferris Booth advertisement in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October third calling upon President Truman to start a "spiritual renaissance" is commendable and sound thinking, generally. However, the final responsibility falls upon each individual who believes in God, regardless of his religious affiliation. The President has called upon all people to take a greater interest in the religious life of each community. Can we expect more?

PRAYER IS THE ANSWER:--

The real strength and power of religion can only be exerted through invoking the presence of God in our lives and praying earnestly for the realization of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man toward the consummation of a better understanding in international and human relations. A believer in any faith can do this, as prayer is the means of communication with God in all of the great religions of the world. Prayer for good by believers in God can overcome the oppressors and put to flight the foes of righteousness.

IT IS ATTAINABLE:--

As individuals, we conduct business together, we mingle in social life, in sports there are no barriers. Surely we are not so biased that we fail to see the common attributes in other religions. TRUTH, HONESTY, JUSTICE, MERCY are basic elements in every great faith. In seeking God, let us omit the controversial issues. IF WE WILL TO DO IT--IT CAN BE DONE.

HOW?--

Begin now to pray in your own manner for the things set forth above. Do it frequently or at stated times. Talk it over with your family, your neighbors, your friends, your spiritual adviser. If possible, get your local newspaper to copy this article or comment upon it. Fellowship Circles could be formed. Do not, however, let it interfere with your regular religious duties--rather combine it with them. Our united prayers

John Glenn Gooch's military stone had only recently been placed in the cemetery when we arrived to plant flowers to honor him this Memorial Day weekend.  Glenn died this winter and is now buried near the town where he arrived in America from Wales at the age of six.  An American by choice, Glenn served in World War II directing warplanes in Greenland, and during the last year of his life he often told me of his fond memories and proud days of service in the American Armed Forces. 

I kneeled down to clear the ground of some fresh growth and break up the dirt while my partner Brad and his mother Bette waited to hand me the more "masculine" flowers she had picked out for him.   Bette and Glenn had been married sixty-four years having met in high school in this northeastern corner of Pennsylvania.  Both were from mining families - not the owners, but the miners - and Glenn was able to go to college because of the GI Bill that greeted returning veterans and later rose to become the President and C.E.O. of a major utilities company in the area.

Glenn's grave had an American flag waving over it, and as I dug I felt deep appreciation for his service, and for the service he and so many others have given to allow me to live a relatively free life in this country.  I recalled reading an essay written by my father Walter Raushenbush at Harvard lamenting that he had narrowly missed the opportunity to fight in WWII, which had ended just before he turned 18.   At the time it shocked my young leftist soul that someone should be so eager to fight, but now I appreciate much more the call to serve my country.  (My father later joined the Air Force rising to the rank of Colonel.)

That neither Brad nor I are eligible to serve because of our sexuality is not the point of this brief essay, but it is a point that needs to be made.  In reflecting upon his father's service, Brad commented that WWII was one of the last common calls upon all Americans.  The universal draft made everyone part of a unified effort including  both Brad's family and my own.  Although plagued by racial segregation, the armed forces brought people of every background together and made plain our common identity as Americans.  Today, only openly gay and lesbian people are restricted from this opportunity.  

Of all my identities, including my religious one, nothing is stronger than my national identity as an American, and my appreciation for the ideals upon which this country was founded.   The longer I live, and the more countries I visit, my pride in my country only grows.  This Memorial Day I give thanks for the memory of John Glenn Gooch, for the service of Walter Raushenbush, and for all of those who have served in our armed forces to keep our country safe.   May we continue to become a more perfect union - the land of the free. 

While doves in the American Jewish community are lining up to support President Obama in his supposed confrontation with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, the hard-nosed supporters of the Occupation can sigh with relief. Nothing proposed by Obama is likely to change the realities on the ground in the West Bank.

Obama's insistence that negotiations begin again between Israel and the Palestinians toward a final settlement agreement sounds "tough" and "standing up to Israel" only to those who have no historical memory. But Netanyahu and the Israeli right-wingers who now run the Israeli government remember very well the willingness of a previous Likud prime minister (and former underground terrorist) Yitzhak Shamir to participate in just such negotiations in the early 1990s. Shamir explained to his constituents that he could sit in such negotiations for the next twenty years and still never concede anything that would resemble a viable Palestinian state: that is, one not still dominated by Israeli settlers, with their own exclusive roads and military protectors, which would make such a state nothing more than a string of Palestinian cities isolated from each other.

Why then will Netanyahu resist such negotiations? Why will the 50% of the Congress that showed up at the AIPAC conference--to prove their loyalty to Israel's most extreme rightist government ever--also do everything they can to block Obama were he to decide to demand for Israel to start negotiating a 2 state solution? Because the Right has learned that it works to press for far more than they can settle with,and then appear to be "compromising" when they are actually giving little more than what they really wanted in the first place. .

Over the past several decades, by vehemently staking out extreme positions the Right both in Israel and the U.S. have managed to shift the center of public discourse far to the Right. Positions once advocated by centrist Labor Party people in Israel (dismantling all the settlements in the West Bank, not just the so-called "illegal settlements") or by centrist Democrats like Clinton in the US (universal health care) are labeled "extreme leftist" views (health care is now called "socialism," for example).

In response, yesterday's centrists, now stuck with the label "left of center," think they are doing well if they can achieve success by "winning" concessions that were once the positions of moderate Republicans or moderate Likudniks. So the Democrats in the U.S., and now the peace forces in the Jewish community, imagine that they are winning some serious victory if they get those peace negotiations started again, when there is no reason to believe that they would lead to the kind of Palestinian state that is economically and politically viable, and to a just settlement for Palestinian refugees-the only outcome that could actually provide the preconditions for lasting security for Israel.

Don't put it past Netanyahu to make a dramatic "concession," either when he meets with Obama at the White House or when Obama visits Israel: that Israel IS willing to acknowledge the goal of a two state solution and even to start negotiations again, if the Palestinians (including Hamas) renounce all violence (something the US won't do in regard to its mission in Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistant)  and if they agree to recognize Israel as a Jewish atate (though the US would never recognize, say, Saudi Arabia as a Muslim state--because we'd never want to impose a particular religious or ethnic identification on any state we recognize). Still, I don't put it past Netanyahu to let go of these demands at some point in the process, because he is a wily negotiator who knows how to deal with U.S. pressure--namely to appear to be making huge concessions while actually implementing none of them. Thus, when he was Prime Minister in the 1990s, he acceded to Bill Clinton's desire to appear to be making peace, but after a torturous process agreed to Israel to allow Palestinians some autonomy (not sovereignty) over about 2/3 of the West Bank (less than 14% of pre-48 Palestine). Meanwhile, he encouraged expansion of settlers so that between the signing of the Oslo Accord at the White House in 1993 and the time that the 2nd Intifada began in 2000 the number of settlers on the West Bank had actually doubled (though to be fair, part of that process took place with the blessings of Rabin before he was murdered by an Israeli right-wing religious fanatic and by Ehud Barak who now serves at Defense Minister in Netanyahu's government). The point here is that Netanyahu knows how to play "cat and mouse" excellently, and unless the US is prepared to impose a fair settlement agreement, Netanyahu could easily agree to start negotiations again and then produce nothing that would satisfy even the most beaten-down and ready-to-compromise Palestinian Authority leadership.

So should the Obama administration suddenly start acting tough, using the power of the U.S. purse to pressure Israel to make significant concessions?  Would that be the equivalent on the Left of the successful strategies of the Right in recent decades?

The answer is no. Not at this point, given the current configuration of American and Israeli politics. To do so would require Obama to spend lots of his political capital on an approach that is unlikely to succeed, given the likelihood that such pressures would be undercut by the AIPAC-subservient Congress and would not be understood or supported by the American people, Such pressure would be resisted massively by an Israeli government made up of parties that made no attempt to hide their opposition to the creation of a viable Palestinian state anytime in the foreseeable future (their sole goal: delay, delay, delay). And count on the extremist elements in Hamas, themselves quite content to let Israel continue the Occupation and make it so hard on Palestinians that more and more will be driven to Hamas' Islamic fundamentalist worldview or to its "armed struggle" perspective (though we do remember that Hamas has offered a twenty year cease-fire with Israel within which time a final settlement could be negotiated if Israel were to stop its violence against Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank and release Palestinian prisoners held without trial under horrific conditions), to take some kind of provocative violent actions to undermine any movement for peace, just as extremists among the Israeli settlers have been doing quite consistently in the past several years.

A far more effective strategy would be for the Obama Administration to forget about positioning itself as a neutral convener of negotiations, and instead develop and popularize in the U.S. and Israel the details of what a fair and just solution would be: 1. the creation of a Palestinian state in all of the West Bank and Gaza (with small border modifications mutually agreed upon to allow Israel to retain control of the historically Jewish parts of Jerusalem and to incorporate some border settlements, in exchange for giving Palestine equal amounts of land) that had full control of its own borders, 2. an international force that would protect both countries from the terrorist fringes in both populations that will likely resist any peaceful accommodation, 3. generous reparations for Palestinian refugees as well as for Jewish refugees who fled Arab countries, 4. fair sharing of the water and other resources, 5. Israeli settlers allowed to stay in their West Bank homes, but only as citizens of Palestine with no vote in Israel and subject to the laws of the Palestinian state without recourse to Israeli courts or armies, 6. a Truth and Reconciliation commission empowered to require testimony and to stop all teaching of hatred or demeaning of the "Other" in schools, media and religious institutions.

Obama could take another step that would help make this case to the American public:he should start a series of high profile meetings with those in Israel and the US who have been advocates for peace and for a genuine reconciliation of the heart between Israelis and Palestinians.  The American people must  be exposed to the voices and experiences of all the stakeholders, especially the many moderate Palestinians. But also let Obama introduce the American people to the vigorous debates that go on within Israel and within the worldwide Jewish diaspora itself, so that AIPAC is not the only voice being heard. Let Obama bring to the attention of the American public Israeli voices like Avrum Burg, Yossi Beilin, Uri Avnery, Rabbi Arik Aschermann, and American organizations like  J Street, Brit Tzedeck, the American Friends Service Committee, the Rabbis for Human Rights, Churches for Middle East Peace, the Network of Spiritual Progressives, the Shalom Center, and Tikkun. And don't underestimate the impact that Obama could have in Israel itself were he, on this visit in June and in subsequent visits explain to the Israeli public and the Palestinian public how to understand the way the other side sees their situation, why both sides need a fundamental new attitude of open-hearted compassion and genuine repentance, and why, if both sides can approach the issue from that standpoint and accept the points articulated above, both sides could achieve what they need: peace, security, and self-respect. Such a compassionate discourse, if it became the center of a serious campaign to change public opinion in Israel, Palestine and the U.S. (with the kind of money behind it that the US used to try, during the surge in Iraq to change its image among Sunnis and Shi'ites), could even have the impact of weakening the public support that Hamas has been building in the past decade, though we can be sure that they and their counterparts among Israeli ultra-nationalist and Jewish fundamentalist extremists, will do all they can to undermine this kind of peace-generating effort.

If Obama were to teach the American public and Israeli public how to understand both sides of this struggle as having legitimate claims and legitimate anger, recognize their need to overcome past humiliations and trauma, and simultaneously advocate for this solution, he might foster the kind of American and Israeli majorities that would enable him to, at some later point,  use American power to impose peace if the two parties can't get there any other way.

 You personally can help by sending these ideas to the White House yourself, ask your local and national media to carry this kind of analysis as well as their more limited pro-AIPAC views, and also by challenging your own elected Congressional representatives (in the House snd Senate) to realize that this approach is the best way to achieve peace and security for Israel--not the way of capitulating to the AIPAC demand that the US never put forward a substantive analysis of what we in the US are for in terms of a settlement agreement!  You could also circulate this to people on your email lists, and you could JOIN as a dues paying member Tikkun/Network of Spiritual Progressives and help us raise the money to hire organizers to build the organization that puts forward these ideas (at www.spiritualprogressives.org
 
). You can help us get interns to volunteer for the summer of for the Sept 09-June 2010 year, and you could volunteer time yourself to help us do outreach from your own computer and your own telephone  (in which case, contact Kay@tikkun.org). Donations to Tikkun are tax-deductible, and you can also put Tikkun in your will as a charitable bequest. 

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