In the corner of my blog, off there on the side, scrolling down a ways, is a section about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I put it there because war is one a stark manifestation of human sinfulness. So long as it's happening, I don't feel like I can risk turning away and pretending I'm not implicated. Even so, as these wars began, I reluctantly supported them. I believed Colin Powell's song and dance about WMD; I thought we should go get Bin Laden. I was proud when Saddam's statue was toppled. I, like many others, was duped. War is evil. It always is, even when it can be justified. Republicans now think Iraq was a "mistake." Or an atrocity....
Over $1,000,000,000,000 (see figures here) has been spent by you and me (US taxpayers) since 2001, waging war in I & A. In addition to the 5700 young Americans who have died, 40,000 are wounded. Recent estimates have put casualties in Iraq at over 100,000, more than 60,000 of which are civilian non-combatants. Put bluntly, 60,000 INNOCENT mothers, fathers, children, best friends, lovers are dead because of the war our nation waged, on false pretenses. I'm not blaming at this point. Just grieving and repenting.
I am grateful that we are drawing down the troop levels in Iraq. But the damage has been done and it is beyond the scope of any of our comprehension. I have not been a soldier--I am not from a military family. I only personally know the damage of war through the psychological scars I witnessed in my grandfather, Jim, from his experience in WWII (mostly, deep anger that could fall at random on any person he encountered); I imagine those wounds magnified exponentially. The pain of the individuals; the devastation in their families.
A few years ago, the Seattle hip-hop duo The Blue Scholars put out a song called Butter and Gun$, a reference to President Dwight Eisenhower's critique of the military-industrial complex: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.” The song is a protest song--an old form in a new genre. Click the link to hear the song, then follow the lyrics below.
It's more than just a hobby or pastime
'Cause 24/7 I'm representin' the massline
The preacher repeatin' their scriptures
While the people are paintin' their pictures
They still complainin' and bitchin'
Waiting in vain to get paid attention
A couple of things, covered in strings
But talkin' failed to mention
Tell me whatever happened to
Veterans gettin' their pension
First, they sayin' they're payin' for college
Your body exchanged for knowledge
But, what good is a mind, whenever we find
Another one locked in a coffin, y'all?
My brother was up in Iraq
While his brother was singin' this song
I'm chantin' to bringin' him home
And most of the people were singin' along
Except for middle American
Flag wavin', fag hatin'
Praisin' sayin' yellow ribbon campaignin' hate
On anybody debatin' I salute you
In definite ways that they could never have done for you
In truth they hardly knew you
But they killin' it, hallelujah, huh
Stop the marchin' orders
While the soldiers gettin' martyred for
Stop the war
Wishin' it all was easy like The Commodores
My mind is sore, thinkin' of war
Thinkin' of all the fallen
You are gone but not forgotten
You alive proceed with caution
Know that sleep is not an option
Don't follow 'em into the slaughter
The reason that all of the youth
Should salute Lieutenant Watada
And I... got your back even if they don't believe in us
Just leave it up to us to keep the love they try to steal from us
Please accept the offerin'
Don't forget we sovereign
A letter to the sufferin'
It's time to keep on marchin'
And I... got your back even if they don't believe in us
Just leave it up to us to keep the love they try to steal from us
Please accept the offerin'
Don't forget we sovereign
A letter to the sufferin'
It's time to keep on marchin'
Somebody tell me where the riders and the soldiers are
And they still debatin' the scriptures
While the people are paintin' their pictures
Still complainin' and bitchin'
Waitin' in vain to get paid attention
A couple of things, covered in strings
But talkin' failed to mention
Tell me whatever happened to
Askin' a couple of questions
They put us in competition to cause affliction with opposition
The friction is probably fiction
They lookin' for pots to piss in
Watch, the boss is up in the loft, laughin'
Uppin' the cost of livin' the cot
But buildin' while the cops are killin' 'em off
Women and children
Politicians who mock religion and talk tradition
They all just just wishin' that all the listeners fall victim
The pistols are drawn, the sinister laws
Are killin' the calls of citizens' march
And soon will start repentance
The minister called deliverance
Guerrillas defendin' their villages
In spite of all of our differences
We're fightin' over percentages
We drafted into the battle that
We never remember considerin'
We simmerin' down
It's bigger than even the king or the crown
"Stand up or fall down", the people are sayin' it loud
"Stand up or fall down", the people are sayin' it loud
"Stand up or fall down", the people are sayin' it loud
And I... got your back even if they don't believe in us
Just leave it up to us to keep the love they try to steal from us
Please accept the offerin'
Don't forget we sovereign
A letter to the sufferin'
It's time to keep on marchin'
And I... got your back even if they don't believe in us
Just leave it up to us to keep the love they try to steal from us
Please accept the offerin'
Don't forget we sovereign
A letter to the sufferin'
It's time to keep on marchin'
Beyond the 40,000 official wounded soldiers, how many thousands (tens of thousands? hundreds of thousands?) of the other soldiers (and non-combatants we've sent as well, plus non-American personnel) are suffering from PTSD or other psychological trauma? Further, the death tolls you cited didn't include the suffering of the literally millions of displaced people or people who died because their lives were disrupted or because of internal strife within Iraq. Counting only those killed by our direct actions, as horrible as that is, is only a fraction of the lives damaged due to our war.
ReplyDeleteI think when the Great White Throne event delivers the Truth that exposes our rationales and justifications as false, we will understand there is no holy alliance between God and country.
ReplyDeleteI am pacifist because I am a disciple of the living Jesus revealed by the Bible and dwelling within me. I have two children trained in deadly force: a son in the army and a daughter who's an undercover cop. How this happened can only be seen as one of the ironies of life. Our sense of justice within our home has produced two people who will risk their lives for justice to be done.
Nonetheless, war must be a function of the fallen nature and historically is driven by greed. "Just" war seems questionable. "Must" war, as in the case of stopping Hitler seems unavoidable.
Stopping Saddam because he was dangerous even to his own people will be adjudicated as an act that reveals the greed of Americans. We weren't so concerned about the millions hacked by machete in Rwanda, as to risk the lives, bodies and dollars to stop it.
Sigh.
Thanks for being a voice that questions the alliance between the post-modern US armed goals and the Evangelical community.
So grateful for these two comments for amplifying my voice and adding depth.
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