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Don't forget the uncounted number of Iraqis who have died in this fiasco.

Click on the image for more detail and for a much better resolution, go to the Huffington Post and Nico Pitney

The Day After, Blogswarm III

The New York Times
March 20, 2008
Editorial

Mission Still Not Accomplished

It has been five years since the United States invaded Iraq and the world watched in horror as what seemed like a swift victory by modern soldiers and 21st-century weapons became a nightmare of spiraling violence, sectarian warfare, insurgency, roadside bombings and ghastly executions. Iraq’s economy was destroyed, and America’s reputation was shredded in the torture rooms of Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret prisons.

These were hard and very costly lessons for a country that had emerged from the cold war as the world’s sole remaining superpower. Shockingly, President Bush seems to have learned none of them.

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In a speech on Wednesday, the start of the war’s sixth year, Mr. Bush was stuck in the Neverland of his “Mission Accomplished” speech. In his mind’s eye, the invasion was a “remarkable display of military effectiveness” that will be studied for generations. The war has placed the nation on the brink of a great “strategic victory” in Iraq and against terrorists the world over.

Even now, Mr. Bush talks of Iraqi troops who “took off their uniforms and faded into the countryside to fight the emergence of a free Iraq” — when everyone knows that the American pro-consul, L. Paul Bremer III, overrode Mr. Bush’s national security team and, with the president’s blessing, made the catastrophically bad decision to disband the Iraqi Army and police force.

Mr. Bush wants Americans to believe that Iraq was on the verge of “full-blown sectarian warfare” when he boldly ordered an escalation of forces around Baghdad last year. In fact, sectarian warfare was raging for months while Mr. Bush refused to listen to the generals, who wanted a new military approach, or to the vast majority of Americans, who just wanted him to end the war.

All evidence to the contrary, Mr. Bush is still trying to make it seem as if Al Qaeda in Iraq was connected to the Al Qaeda that attacked America on Sept. 11, 2001. He tried to justify an unjustifiable war by ticking off benefits of deposing Saddam Hussein, but he somehow managed to forget the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.

Vice President Dick Cheney was equally deep in denial on Monday when he declared at a news conference in Baghdad that it has all been “well worth the effort.”

Tell that to the families of nearly 4,000 Americans who have been killed — far too many of them because Mr. Bush and his arrogantly incompetent secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, failed to plan for an insurgency that many others saw coming. Thousands more Americans have been wounded and deprived of adequate post-conflict care while Iraqis have died by the tens of thousands. More than five million have been driven from their homes.

Add in a cost to the United States that some say could exceed $3 trillion, the new political opening created for Iran, the incalculable damage to America’s reputation and the havoc wreaked on Iraqi society. Few lament Saddam Hussein’s passing, but the war has left Iraq a broken country, made the United States more vulnerable, not safer, and stretched the American military to a point that compromises its ability to fight elsewhere.

The increase in American forces last year initially produced a steep decline in insurgent attacks. But the conflict has drifted into a stalemate with the levels of violence remaining constant, and unacceptably high, from November 2007 through early 2008, according to a Government Accountability Office report. As Mr. Cheney visited Iraq, a bombing killed 43 people.

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One of the cruelest ironies is that Iraqis have not taken advantage of the American troop surge, which was intended to create space for them to resolve their political differences. After much foot-dragging, they passed a 2008 budget and a law granting amnesty to thousands of Sunnis and others in Iraqi jails. But a law on sharing oil wealth is stalled and one aimed at allowing former Baathist Party members back into government may actually drive many out. Another bill, mandating provincial elections by October, was passed by Parliament, then vetoed by the Presidency Council of Iraq’s top leaders. Only after pressure from Mr. Cheney was it suddenly revived.

The plight of Iraqis uprooted by violence is further proof of how broken the country is. Some 2.7 million Iraqis are displaced internally and another 2.4 million have fled as refugees, mostly to Syria and Jordan. That’s nearly 20 percent of Iraq’s prewar population — the kind of inconvenient truth the Bush administration would rather ignore.

Although thousands of refugees returned to Iraq last year, most ended up leaving again because they did not feel secure. American, Iraqi and international aid to Iraqi refugees is insufficient, and many refugees, their savings depleted and barred from most jobs, are despairing, aid workers say. No one knows when — or if — they can ever return. Syria and Jordan generously allowed Iraqis in, but the huge numbers could destabilize both countries and fuel anti-America resentment.

The United States agreed to admit a paltry 12,000 Iraqi refugees in fiscal year 2008; so far, only 2,000 have been processed.

Brighter spots — Iraq’s economy is projected to grow 7 percent this year — are offset by problems: millions of Iraqis still don’t have clean water and medical care, thousands are jobless and the Iraqi Army, while improving, cannot defend the country on its own.

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Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney refuse to let these facts interfere with their benighted notion of keeping troops in Iraq indefinitely and insisting that Iraq — not Afghanistan and Pakistan where Al Qaeda and the Taliban have gained ground — must remain America’s top priority.

It was clear long ago that Mr. Bush had no plan for victory, only a plan for handing this mess to his successor. Americans need to choose a president with the vision to end this war as cleanly as possible.

Five years out

The reasons behind the war were a lie in the beginning.

The self-justification in the 'decider's' speech today is delusional.

The war is criminal.

Let your logic go where it shall.

The photo says it all for me.

Go here for other bloggers' responses.

Blogswarm against the war

Today marks five years since the US started bombing Iraq.

While others out there will offer reflections on what it has meant, I am simply going to post the service, readings and meditation we had the day after the bombs started to fall. Context is everything: I serve a congregation that is half a mile from the nation's oldest private military college and needed to be aware of people's thoughts even as I was and always have been totally against this so-called war.

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A Service for Peace in a Time of War
20 March 2003 • 6.00 PM

The Holy Eucharist

Gathering
Blessed be the God of our salvation:
Who bears our burdens and forgives our sins.

Iona Litany for Peace
In the midst of hunger and war,
we celebrate the promise of plenty and peace.
In the midst of oppression and tyranny,
we celebrate the promise of service and freedom.
In the midst of doubt and despair,
we celebrate the promise of faith and hope.
In the midst of fear and betrayal,
we celebrate the promise of joy and loyalty.
In the midst of hatred and death,
we celebrate the promise of love and life.
In the midst of sin and decay,
we celebrate the promise of salvation and renewal.
In the midst of death on every side,
we celebrate the promise of the Living Christ.

Readings

A reading from Jeremiah
My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent; for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Disaster overtakes disaster, the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, my curtains in a moment. How long must I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? ‘For my people are foolish, they do not know me; they are stupid children, they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good.’ I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. I looked, and lo, there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled. I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger. For thus says the LORD: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. Because of this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above grow black; for I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn back.

A reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly…. Do not pay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves…. No, if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The Holy Gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ according to Matthew
Jesus said to them: You have heard it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

Reflection
The first reading you heard this evening is from the prophet Jeremiah. It is also the first reading in today’s daily office lectionary. Imagine how those words stopped me as I read them this morning. Sometimes scripture and life come too close together for comfort.

I have been struggling to put into words the heaviness of my heart and the conversation I have been having internally about where I stand on this war. I speak as a committed Christian, as an individual, but also as a priest and servant of this community.

As we gather tonight, remember that it is 2.00 in the morning in Baghdad. There are bombs falling as we gather. Call it an over-active imagination, but I can’t help but think that the same moon shines over that city, as it would here if the heavens weren’t weeping tonight. I try to imagine the million civilians of Baghdad hunkered down in their homes, hoping to ride out this hurricane of military force. The words of Abraham’s bargaining with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah echo in my heart:

‘Will you really sweep away the innocent with the guilty? Perhaps there are fifty innocent within the city. Will you really sweep it away? Will you not bear with the place because of the fifty innocent that are in its midst? Heaven forbid for you to do a thing like this, to deal death to the innocent along with the guilty….’ Abraham gets God to spare the city for fifty, then twenty, then ten.

I get stuck because surely there will be innocents who will suffer on account of their leader’s cruelty and this attack on their country. I get stuck because the colour of their blood is the same as mine.

I get stuck because people might interpret my opposition to this war as being unpatriotic and unsupportive of the US troops that are over there. Hardly so. A priest from Delaware wrote into the House of Bishops/Deputies list serve this morning words that reflect this dilemma:

‘Under the banner of patriotism, members of my Episcopalian congregation are being labelled unpatriotic and called traitor if they express any opinion contrary to that of the current administration.

‘The best support we could give our women and men serving in the military today is to continue not only to exercise our rights and liberties for which they have been sent to fight, among which are the right to freedom of speech and the liberty to dissent, but also to support those who speak their minds when they dissent, even in war, even if we do not agree with that dissent.

‘Those of us who dissent appear to be only 25% of the population, according to a poll I saw on the news this morning. For the majority to demand that we shut up or toe the party line is tyranny, just as it would be if the shoe were on the other foot.

‘Meanwhile, although most of my primarily elderly, otherwise conservative congregation do not support war against Iraq, they are going about collecting articles needed by those being deployed — Bibles, chapstick, non-fragranced lotion, stationery, etc. — to be collected by the USO for distribution. Dissent does not preclude supporting those sent to fight in our name.’

And that is where I come down. I will continue to exercise the right to free speech granted each one of us in the constitution and more important because the baptismal covenant demands my speaking.

While in El Salvador, I spent two hours talking with a Nicaraguan woman who had moved to El Salvador twenty years ago and now is a naturalised citizen of El Salvador. She was upset with another member of the congregation because she felt that the other was acting in an unchristian manner because of her involvement with the FMLN, a left-of-center party. She felt that the other shouldn’t be involved in politics in any shape or form. What I said to Esperanza (her name means, ‘hope’!) was that there are times when injustices in the world demand that a Christian speak out. There are times that the vows of the baptismal covenant, especially the fourth and fifth ones, dictate that I speak out against oppression and injustice and I do so as an individual.

Most of all, I pray. Dr Robert Pierce, founder of Samaritan’s Purse wrote: ‘Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.’ Tonight my heart is breaking. But I pray, trusting that God hears our prayers as well as those of the world and that even in moments like this, there still will be hope and rebirth. I pray that for all who are involved in this current conflict that they will have hope and be safe… and that this broken world somehow be reborn into a world where we will finally learn war no more, where nation shall no longer take up sword against another, no longer become the violence we abhor, and where none shall be afraid.

Prayers of the People
In peace let us pray to the Lord, saying “Kyrie eleison.”
For the children of God, for all humankind, that we be become people of peace in our time.
Kyrie eleison
For the Holy Church of God that we may live the prophetic dream to turn swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, and do war no more;
Kyrie eleison
For this congregation here present, that we may become known as instruments of peace in our communities and places of work;
Kyrie eleison
For our nation, and all the nations of the earth, that we might take risks for peace, and cease resolving our differences and hatreds through violence and war;
Kryrie eleison
For all who live in times and places of fear, hunger, homelessness, in the midst of war and violence, without safety or care;
Kyrie eleison
For prisoners of war, refugees, political prisoners, for people abandoned and forgotten;
Kyrie eleison
For children, widows and orphans, for the wounded and dying, especially those in Iraq, Kuwait and any other country affected by the current military campaign tonight, those who live constantly with the violence of disease and suffering;
Kyrie eleison
For ourselves, our families and friends, our neighbors and colleagues, that we might find peace in our hearts, and peace in all our relationships, being reconciled, one to another, and be agents of God’s reconciliation;
Kyrie eleison
For all nations at war, and for those who this day suffer violence and terror, especially for the people of Afghanistan, of Palestine and Israel, of Northern Ireland, India and Pakistan, and all other places torn by war and strife and for the safety of our armed forces currently deployed in Iraq and Kuwait.
Kyrie eleison
For all who have died this past year through violence and war, and for all who gave of their lives for peace, for all the saints and martyrs;
Kyrie eleison
Jesus our brother said in the Gospels, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for theirs is the realm of God.”
Help us, O God, to be instruments of your peace.

The World Peace Prayer (together)
Lead me from death to life,
from falsehood to truth.
Lead me from despair to hope,
from fear to trust.
Lead me from hate to love,
from war to peace.
Let peace fill our hearts,
our world, our universe. Amen.

The Peace

Eucharistic Prayer A

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More thoughts will emerge as the day goes on.