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An Ethical Way to End the War in Iraq.Now that the toothless resolution disapproving of the Bush escalation has passed without making any impact on the President, a growing number of Americans are beginning to realize that the real issue is the war itself, not merely the latest escalation of it, and that the war in Iraq is unlikely to end until Congress specifically cuts the funding for the war and refuses to pass any funding authorization for the Dept. of Defense until the troops are headed safely home. Many Americans are not ready to make that demand on their Congressional representatives quite yet. They want to know what will happen next after funds are cut. To answer that, and strengthen Congressional resolve to end the war, the peace forces need to introduce a new ethical and spiritual vision of how America could change the way it acts and is perceived in the world. Here’s how. I. The War is Wrong: Repentance Is NecessaryThe remedy for wrong-doing begins not only with the act of changing the path (stop funding war) but also with apology and repentance (in the Biblical sense repentance conveys a return to one’s highest self after one has gone astray and betrayed one’s highest values). Therefore, we propose that the President (or, if he won’t, then the Congress should send representatives who) go before the U.N. and acknowledge that it was wrong for the U.S. to invade Iraq, that hundreds of thousands of innocent people have been killed and wounded in the chain of events that our invasion precipitated. For the sufferings and deaths that have come for this invasion he should ask for forgiveness on behalf of himself and the American people who overwhelmingly supported this great wrong. The scripture declares: If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
(II Chronicles 7:14 KJV) It is not a sign of weakness to confess wrong-doing. We believe that it is only the spiritually strong who are able to do this. Such a confession will go far to restore the stature of America as a truly moral nation. And in repenting on behalf of all Americans, including those who are not religious, the president (or Congress) should acknowledge that this entire society has mistakenly adhered to the view that safety and security can be achieved through domination or control of others, but that a better path to safety and security is to treat others with generosity, kindness and genuine concern for their well being. It seems unlikely that the President would pursue this path, so we urge the Congress to pass a resolution rejecting the strategy of domination and embracing the strategy of generosity, and calling upon the world’s peoples to forgive our society for the destructive path it has followed. It should then convey this appeal for forgiveness on behalf of the American people to the peoples of the world. II. Let the Arab League, the U.N. and International Peace Forces Replace U.S. and British ForcesFellow Arabs and Muslims know the language, understand the culture, and especially the religion of the people of Iraq far better than do our own soldiers, who usually perceived as modern-day imitators of the Crusaders who once devastated Muslim countries. Volunteers from Muslim and non-Muslim countries should be able to provide protection for Sunni, Shia and Kurdish interests. The U.S. and Britain should withdraw all our forces as this Arab, Muslim and International force takes our place and conducts a plebiscite to allow the people to determine their own future. The U.S. should give our military bases to this force, and require that any U.S. corporation operating in Iraq give at least the majority of its profits to the task of Iraqi reconstruction. III. Rebuild Iraq and Launch a Global Marshall Plan: Generosity Beats Domination as a Strategy for Homeland SecurityTrue repentance requires the works of repentance. It is not enough to simply say “We’re sorry!” So the U.S. must commit the hundreds of billions needed to fully rebuild Iraq. Yet the rebuilding of Iraq should only be part of a larger Global Marshall Plan which the U.S. should announce now—to commit at least 1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the U.S. each year for the next twenty years toward the goal of eliminating global and domestic poverty, homelessness, inadequate health care, inadequate education, and for repairing the environment. Just as the first Marshall Plan allocated 1.5-2% of GDP after the Second World War to the rebuilding of Europe, this second Marshall Plan, extended to the rest of the world, will provide far more homeland security for the U.S. than the currently planned military spending that will squander our resources. The Global Marshall Plan we propose is a major step toward a Strategy of Generosity which is the key to rebuilding trust in the United States. It is this kind of generosity which is required by the Scriptures of all the Abrahamic religions and should be pursued not only because it helps increase American security and respect for America around the world, but because it is morally appropriate and religiously mandated. If our Global Marshall Plan is backed by American political leaders purely for utilitarian reasons, it will be far less successful than if it supported and perceived by others around the world to have been supported by Americans because of a genuine caring for others and not solely because it is in our security interests to do so. Fostering an ethos of genuine caring for others—countering the ethos of selfishness, materialism and me-firstism that has been the “common sense” of a cynical media and our market-driven-culture—must become the highest domestic and foreign policy priority for our society. We, the undersigned, support the concept of repentance and generosity as central to the way to end the war in Iraq. We call upon our elected officials, media, and fellow citizens to give serious consideration to the strategy outlined above which requires a fundamental rethinking of what can really provide security for the U.S. Drafted by Rev. Tony Campolo and Rabbi Michael Lerner, and signed by Sister Joan Chittister, Cornel West, Sheikh Kabir Helminski, Rev. Glen Harold Stassen, Rev. Rick Ufford Chase, Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, Howard Zinn, Robert Inchasti, Jeffrey Kuan, Thomas Moore, Rabbi Marcia Prager, Douglas Rushkoff, Svi Shapiro, Rabbi Stephn B. Jacobs, Marshall Berman, Donald Gelpi S.J., Res. John and Susan Gregory-Davis, Father Luis Barrios, Deepak Chopra, Rev.Deborah Johnson, Mitchell Plitnick, Thomas Powers, Kirk Schneider, Rick Simon, Archbishop Sergius, Rachel Simon, Robert and Barbara Trumbull, Stanley Klein, Phyllis T. Albritton, Youseph Yazdi, Julie Heston, Pat Gottschalk, Michael Wolfe, Amanda Strosahl, , Cathy Sultan, Marcia Halpern, Louise Clark, Kimberly Vossler, Michael Bresnahan, David Knechel, Lon Ball, Robert Lange, Robert Wolfe, David Sheidlower, Gregory Halpern, Marian Dobbs, Maureeen Wesolowski, Donna Loving, Jonathan Jacoby, Ivy Glick, Bruce Billings, Thomas Newman, Linda B. Belle, Irfan Kahn, Angelina Fiordelisi, Jerome Griffin, Ann Holub, Cathy Webster, Curtis Hamilton, Hiroko M. Crispin, Michael Pearson…and YOU (if you can donate over $300 and there is space, we hope to list your name here, but whatever you donate is very needed if we are to raise the money needed to publish this in media around the U.S.—and all names will be listed on line at www.tikkun.org/iraqpeace
When Jesus said “Love your enemies,” we think he probably meant: don’t kill them.
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