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For that reason, The Network of Spiritual Progressives, a new national organization of liberal religious people and "spiritual-but-not-religious" secularists who understand the importance of the spiritual dimension in human life, has launched an ad campaign urging a 3 step program:
1. The President or the Congress, speaking on behalf of the American people, must issue a statement of apology and public repentance for what the U.S. has done in Iraq, and send representatives to the U.N. to ask the world community for forgiveness.
2. The U.S. must ask the Arab League, the U.N. and other international groups to take the place of U.S. troops in temporarily holding back any potential escalation of ethnic violence. Up till now the U.S. has issued such an invitation only as part of a U.S. force seeking to stabilize Iraq under U.S. terms. If the U.S. were to ask for this help as part of its time-table for immediate withdrawal of troops, the Arab League and others have indicated that they would be willing to replace the U.S. forces and help the Iraqi people conduct a plebiscite on whether the country should remain one country of, as Muslims and Hindus did in the creation of modern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, divide into more than one country along ethnic lines. In turn, the U.S. must surrender its bases to this international force, commit massive funding to rebuild Iraq, and require any remaining U.S. corporations to give at least a majority of its profits to the task of rebuilding.
3. The U.S. must immediately launch a Global Marshall Plan, dedicating 1-2% of the Gross Domestic Product of the U.S. each year for the next twenty to the task of ending global (and domestic) poverty, homelessness, hunger, inadequate health care, inadequate education, and repairing the damage done to the global environment. While the U.S. should seek to involve other G-8 countries in this plan, it must lead by example. Monies cannot be dumped on undemocratic or irresponsible governments. Careful planning on how to use the money both in stimulating public spending and private investment is part of the plan. Where government accountability cannot be firmly established, the monies should be invested through coalitions of NGOs in the recipient countries who can provide culturally and environmentally sensitive ways to improve the economies of their country. Simultaneously, the U.S. must redo its global trade arrangements so that they no longer work to privilege the advanced industrial countries while devastating the well being of the poorest and most powerless elements on the planet.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-michael-lerner/how-to-end-the-war-in-ira_b_42006.htmlI've often wondered about having the next president apologize to the world for Bush's war crimes. It wouldn't be unprecedented, though I don't think the US Government has ever done it.
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