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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>("Ecce homo." </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Some of the Christian and so-called Christian
groups in the USA are well-meaning and many of them want nothing more than to be
in line with the Truth. But along with the weekly serving of pap and
pablum that they get is a shot of pseudopatriotic American jingoism that should
come with a label warning about Death in the Kettle for the neoconservative
venom that permeates the fare. But not every knee in the Church has bowed
to Baal.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>While I dont agree 100% with this writer ("Come
home, America" seems closer to the mark to me than the prolonged American
interventionism he suggests), I do wish that this sort of talk was more common
than the usual nonsense about the US having a Mandate from Heaven to Police the
World.)</FONT></DIV>
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<TD vAlign=center align=left><B>Time to End This War</B><BR>
<P><B>Soldiers are dying for a failed, arrogant, theologically unjust, and
immoral war policy.</B><BR><I>By Jim Wallis</I></P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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<P>Gen. David Petraeus, the new commander in Afghanistan, was pictured in
<I>The Washington Post </I>after his confirmation this summer with a broad
smile and thumbs up, proclaiming, “We are all firmly united in seeking to
forge unity of effort.”</P>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">No, we’re not, general. In fact, it’s
time to unite the religious community against the war in Afghanistan. The
real issue is not replacing one general with another; it’s the fatally
flawed war policy that increasingly resembles a similar policy during the
Vietnam War.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">In February 1968, North Vietnamese and
Viet Cong attacks throughout South Vietnam showed that U.S. political and
military leaders’ optimistic pronouncements about the end of the war being
near were not true. By then, it was clear to many that the war was not
winnable, yet more than half of U.S. casualties in Vietnam occurred from
that spring until the end of the war (35,000 of the total 58,000).</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">I have walked the line at the Vietnam
Memorial wall many times, with tears running down my face as I read the
names of my generation who were killed. And the painful remorse is even
greater when I remember that the majority of those who died were killed
after we knew we would ultimately have to come home without “winning.” I
recall President Nixon saying at one point that the reason for staying in
Vietnam was so that we could come home “with our heads held high.” We
didn’t.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">After 9/11, an international police
action to bring the perpetrators of that horrible crime to justice would
have been one thing. But to begin a war and then an occupation of
Afghanistan was the wrong policy, killing more Afghan innocents
than American innocents who died on 9/11. It was then further
compromised by the morally unjustifiable war in Iraq.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">When will we ever learn? The failed
policies are all too familiar: a counterinsurgency strategy requiring more
and more troops, creating the continued presence of a large U.S. military
force, increasing the resentment and hostility of the Afghan people at a
foreign occupation, trying to impose a central government onto a tribal
society, and depending on an incompetent and utterly corrupt political
ruler and regime.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">Applying the usual metric for an
effective anti-terrorism policy, the question has to be asked: Has our
primarily military policy in Afghanistan and Iraq killed more terrorists
than it has recruited? We know the answer—the math of terrorism is against
us. And our military obsession has made the most important question
impossible to ask—it’s even deemed unpatriotic to consider: How might we
reduce and defeat the causes of terrorism in the first place?</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">Nonmilitary strategies should lead the
way, with the focus on humanitarian assistance, sustainable economic
development, and international policing. It should be led by civilian
nongovernmental organizations, both faith-based and secular, that have
been in the region for years, are locally rooted, and are more trusted by
the people than the U.S. government using aid as an adjunct to military
operations.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">After taking over the country, we do
have a responsibility not to simply walk away. There are ethical and moral
issues: protecting Americans from further terrorism; protecting the lives
of U.S. servicemen and women; defending women from the Taliban; supporting
democracy; and saving innocent lives from the collateral damage of
war, to name a few.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">Effective development needs security. We
should start in areas that are secure and then grow to additional parts of
the country, providing only the security necessary to protect the
rebuilding. That kind of peacekeeping would be more likely to gain the
international support we need in Afghanistan, from Europe and even from
Arab and Muslim countries.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">The current strategy will only lead to
more casualties—U.S. and Afghan—while strengthening popular support for
the Taliban as an anti-occupation force. It is a strategy of endless war
that is ultimately doomed to failure.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">A recent photo on the front page of
<I>The New York Times </I>broke my heart. It showed the family of a
serviceman just before he was redeployed to Afghanistan. He was in his
fatigues, holding his 6-month-old son with a look of deep pain on his
face, with his wife resting her head against his shoulder. The article
told story after story about families being separated by repeated
deployments.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">Soldiers who are fathers, mothers, sons,
and daughters are dying for a failed, arrogant, theologically unjust, and,
yes, immoral war policy. Of course, most of those dying are not the young
people headed for our best universities and successful professional
careers—they are rather the ones who have fewer options, or who see the
military as their only option. Those with the fewest opportunities, and
their families, are again the ones to sacrifice and suffer. It’s not right
and it’s not fair.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">It’s time to end this war. Or should we
just start building another memorial wall?</DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV>
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