INTERNATIONAL PASTORAL
 CARE  NETWORK  FOR
 SOCIAL  RESPONSIBILITY


NEWSLETTER MONTHLY UPDATE
April, 2003

by John R. Thomas
                           First Chair, Pastoral Care Network for Social Responsibility
 

As a veteran of World War II and the Korean "police action,"  I listened with growing fear as last year our President put the blame on Iraq for the 9/11 terrorism attack.  He  linked it to an inner mandate to "remove the weapons of mass destruction" from Iraq.   As Secretary  Powell's attempt to support that linkage failed in the eyes of most of the world, we saw that a changing (or primary) goal of our president was to produce a regime change in Iraq.  Recent attempts to write about the kind of leadership our president has provided in the past  indicated that he was very capable and focused as a leader, but the one challenge was the breadth of his imagination.  Later events will help us to better evaluate that judgment.

His "go it alone" style, plus an subservient congress, (including both parties except for a few like Senator Byrd of West Virginia), which wrote him a blank check, clearly meant that we would be at war in 2003 regardless of whether or not the United Nations would support it.  A  well-managed White house PR campaign since last Fall, with little criticism from the USA media, both TV and press, and the relative lack of media coverage of the many, many demonstrations against the coming war produced an atmosphere where US support for Iraq's defeat was certain.  The military war was won, at unknown costs to civilians and Iraq's future, and now the US is to remain in charge for some months to come, at least, and against the preponderance of Middle East experts' advice.

It has been noticed by many critics that in the group advising the president, only Colin Powell had any first hand experience in the military.  So it was easy to treat confrontation with Iraq like a football game, with the "good guys" winning, regardless of the losses of life, limb and civilization.

Meanwhile, those of us who opposed our president's decision supported "Not in my name" newspaper ads, peace demonstrations all over our country, and some demonstrators chose active resistance.  We felt helpless and unable to influence the country even though our prayers for peace went up daily.

All of us are glad that Saddam Hussein's dictatorship is ended, but we do not know the ultimate outcome in the Middle East of our president's "preventive strike" adventure.  That judgment will be made by future generations.

It was no surprise to me that middle-aged and older Americans were included in the groups polls showed to be against the war.   Living in a retirement center with other people in their 80' and 90's it was clear that they remembered previous wars and the ultimate costs in the lives of our veterans, their husbands, brothers (including mine) and sons, some of whom are still in Veterans' Hospitals today, 55 years after WW II,  40 years after Korea, and 30 years after Vietnam.

We stayed up for an evening of late conversation with his dad.  You know, one of those times when adult children can really start 'talking' to parents.  All was quiet in the house except we three.

And I'll never forget the look on Paul's face when he learned, for the first time, that his dad had won the Purple Heart in Korea.

"Dad, I'm over 30 years old.  Why haven't we heard about this before?"

"My government gave me a medal for killing young boys whose government told them to fight me.  There is no heroism in war -- just a bunch of scared young kids who are forced to kill to stay alive."

--MEDITATIONS,  Denise Mosher, Dymosher@aol.com,  33 University Square #137, Madison, WI 53715.

The depths of evil revealed in Iraq, and U.S.'s main reliance on military might rather than on diplomacy cause us all to pause and reflect.  Meantime the US has supported Israel against the legitimate claims of the Palestinians for statehood.   We hope our president will turn his attention to focus on this issue, which was part of the  cause of much of the Arab world's unrest prior to this military "victory" in Iraq, and will continue to be until its solved.

This is being written in the Monday of the Christian holy week, with Friday's crucifixion and also Sunday's Easter yet to come.  We want to believe that God is involved in our world today, but right now it feels more like Good Friday, and we can only hope that the Resurrection and God's victory will arrive, if not in this life, then in the life to come.