|
November/December
2002 WAR IS TERRORISM by Richard Deats As this issue goes to press, President Bush remains determined to go to war with Iraq. Even as the future of Afghanistan remains uncertain, the focus of the Administration has turned elsewhere. Despite widespread opposition from all of our traditional allies (except Great Britain) and from the United Nations, the President is willing to go to war alone, without even presenting a convincing case for this war to the American public or the UN. This is consistent with the alarming new directions of American foreign policy under Bush: preemptive war when and where the President chooses, the first use of nuclear weapons, the breaking of treaties (such as the ABM Treaty) and the refusal to sign treaties in the national and global interest such as the Kyoto Protocol and the International Criminal Court. The slogan the peace movement used during the Gulf war is still relevant: No Blood for Oil! Our Middle East foreign policy is driven by the objective of controlling the oil in the region. Meanwhile we neglect the development of alternative sources of energy, renewable sources that could both radically decrease our need to import oil and at the same time significantly clean up the global environment. The Bush approach is always the short-term view. He is fixated on the symptoms of violence in the world but never looks at the causes. He blames "evil men" who "hate our freedom" and who therefore must be tracked down and destroyed. Although the President says that the philosopher he follows is Jesus, his actions honor the god of war more than the God of peace. Fighting fire with fire is the opposite of overcoming evil with good. A radically different approach to the problem of terrorism was proposed by Martin Luther King, Jr. shortly before he was assassinated. Meeting with a national gathering of rabbis, he was asked what he would propose for dealing with the violence in the Middle East. Referring to "that third world of hunger, of disease, of illiteracy," he said that "there is a need for a Marshall Plan for the Middle East, where we lift those who are at the bottom of the economic ladder and bring them into the mainstream of economic security." What if the rich nations were actually to propose an all-out effort to develop a new Marshall Plan? That would address the scandal of the rich getting richer in a world where, as Gandhi said, there is enough for everyone's need but not enough for everyone's greed. Misery, poverty, and oppression are pools in which terrorism and extremism thrive. Why not, as Noam Chomsky says, "drain the swamp?" People with hope will be far less likely to be swayed by the charlatans, fanatics, and false prophets who prey upon people's desperation and hopelessness. Bush's call to endless war is a reckless course that will create more terrorists and deepen the misery in the world. It is a retreat from the rule of law and a cooperative approach to world problems. What if other nations with nuclear weapons follow the US lead and also adopt the policy of preemptive war? Imagine India or Pakistan following the US example in their dangerous confrontation in Kashmir, or China's deciding to take over Taiwan. A.J. Muste said, "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way." A peaceful world will come from peaceful means, for means and ends are interrelated. This moral principle is directly relevant to the crisis we are facing. People of faith need to draw upon their great traditions of compassion, mercy, goodwill, justice and peace, not retaliation and war, This is the message we should give to our leaders and challenge them to choose the way of life, not death. Richard Deats ****
©2002 Fellowship of Reconciliation |
We
mourn the loss of Paul Peabody, Sr., seventy-one. He died on September
17 of a heart attack during an early morning walk by the Hudson
River near his home in Nyack, New York. Paul was on the editorial
staff of this magazine until his retirement in 1993, after thirty-six
years with the Fellowship of Reconciliation. He is survived by
his wife Jo, and their three children Paul Jr., Jeannie ,and Tim,
and their families. He was buried in a simple pine coffin on a
hillside overlooking the Hudson Valley.
As
he became more widely known he performed a demanding schedule
in schools, museums, and festivals. Although he didn't like to
travel far from home, he took his beloved marionettes with him
on performances at such places as the Morgan Library, the Smithsonian
Institution, Colonial Williamsburg, and Stratford-on-Avon in England.
His was a fine old world craft that has few peers anywhere.