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TechnoratiFracturing the Peace to End the Iraq War
Don't fracture the peace.
I repeat: Do not fracture the peace -- even though the silence of that peace masks the violence of war.
Do not fracture the peace of a peaceful Sunday -- even though during that peace thousands of U.S. service members and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are being killed.
Do not fracture the peace -- even though the resurrection being celebrated on Easter Sunday is the resurrection of the one who in the Christian faith is the ultimate fracturer of the peace, a peace that masks overwhelming violence.
Don't fracture the peace.
The Holy Name 6 became fracturers of the peace on Easter Sunday at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. Interrupting the homily of Cardinal George and dramatizing the blood being spilt in Iraq, they poured staged blood upon themselves with spatters damaging the carpet (and, quite unintentionally and inadvertently, the clothing of nearby parishioners.) The six now face up to 5 years in prison on a felony charge of property damage.
Their action invites us into deeper consideration and contemplation of what our response ought to be to challenge and end the war in and occupation of Iraq. It is a challenge and invitation to all of us -- and to each of us -- to deepen and intensify our nonviolent resistance to the Iraq - Afghanistan war, for their action was deeply rooted in nonviolence.
The Holy Name 6 are enduring great criticism for their action. Property was damaged. People were disturbed. Sensibilities were challenged. And those engaged in the action are all so young.
This all takes me back to 1985, as I prepared for and acted to dismantle Project ELF, then a key component of the U.S. nuclear weapons offensive first strike war strategy (ELF, closed in 2004, would transmit the message to U.S. nuclear missile submarines to initiate a nuclear world war). Both before and after this Plowshares - Disarmament action, I grappled with criticisms similar to those faced by the Holy Name 6 -- property damage. Property is considered sacred in our country. Property becomes valued more than human lives. Nuclear weapons and weapons of war are considered to be property to be protected infinitely more so than human lives. Carpeting becomes more valued than human lives.
Is it truly so outrageous that a carpet is damaged while attempting to end a war that has already resulted in the deaths of over 4000 U.S. military personnel and well over 500,000 -- and perhaps over 1 million Iraqis (a number which will likely never be known)? Is this minimal property damage so outrageous as to warrant felony charges and up to five years in prison?
The Archdiocese asserts that it will cost over $3000 to replace a damaged carpet. By way of comparison, the U.S. Navy claimed that in damaging Project ELF I caused about $4700 in damages with a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison. Also by way of comparison, after pouring my own blood inside of a pornography store in Minnesota (to dramatize the violence against women and children) the maximum penalty I faced was 6 months in jail.
Do we as a country and as a people truly value the fabric of a carpet more than we value the lives of Iraqis? The U.S. military blows up a home and we call it "collateral damage", and go on with our lives. A piece of fabric is damaged and the full power of the state is called upon to squelch the dissenters.
Don't disturb people's sensibilities. Act within the normative discourse of the day. Don't step outside the acceptable confines of dissent or public action.
In preparing to disarm Project ELF, I encountered the question: would an act of disarmament -- of nonviolent damage of the Navy's nuclear first strike component -- step outside of the normative discourse of dissent and thereby alienate people and hamper efforts to prevent Project ELF from becoming fully operative?
It's a practical question that should be considered in preparing to act. Yet in times of great crisis, it becomes incumbent upon us to engage in actions that pose the risk of fracturing alliances as well as that pose the risk of alienation. Now is such a time of crisis, with a majority of U.S. citizens opposing the war in Iraq, but with a majority also seemingly unwilling to engage in even the least risky of legal (let alone extralegal) actions to bring about the war's end. We are left with a normative political discourse that would leave current levels of troops in Iraq indefinitely (should John McCain become President) or establish a floor of 40,000 to 60,000 troops in Iraq for the next five to 10 years (should Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton become President).
And aren't the Holy Name 6 (being 18 to 25 years old) just all too young to be engaging in this form of action? They really ought to grow up a little bit, gain the wisdom of years and then think about what they have and haven't done.
Yet age does not equal wisdom. If age equals wisdom, members of Congress and three Presidents would not have imposed genocidal economic sanctions against Iraq from 1991 to 2004; or invaded Iraq in 2003; or permitted the Iraq war to continue to this day.
If not for 18 to 22 year olds, the U.S. may well have become much more engaged militarily in Central America than it did in the 1980s. In January 1980 (when I was 16), President Carter brought back registration for the draft. The response was immediate -- massive noncompliance, to the tune of well over 500,000 people refusing to register for the draft in the initial years. Significant numbers of draft registration resisters made their act of resistance public -- willing to risk up to five years in prison for their resistance. Communities came together as a handful of public resisters were indicted and tried for refusing to register. Federal courthouses were blockaded on the days of trial. The signal was sent to the U.S. government -- do not attempt to bring back the actual draft; we will not be your cannon fodder; your wars of aggression must end. Without this ready supply of soldiers through the draft, the U.S. could not contemplate a great expansion of its war in Central America. All this by people mostly between 18 and 22 years of age.
People's sensibilities ought to be challenged by this current day youthful fracturing of the peace. Holy Name Cathedral is home to Cardinal George. The sensibilities of the institutional church ought to be challenged -- whether Catholic or Protestant -- to become more truly and more fully engaged in ending the Iraq war. The Catholic Church has used its power in the debate over abortion -- with some Archbishops and Bishops denying communion to political leaders who are pro-choice. Will the Church use its power to end the Iraq war?
Cardinal George might learn from Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. On March 23, 1980 the Archbishop invited the Salvadoran army to mutiny, saying in his homily "Brothers, you are from the same people; you kill your fellow peasant...No soldier is obliged to obey an order that is contrary to the will of God...In the name of God then, in the name of this suffering people I ask you, I beg you, I command you in the name of God: stop the repression." On March 24, as he celebrated the Eucharist, Archbishop Romero was assassinated by U.S. supported death squads. Perhaps Cardinal George will move from speaking words of peace to taking action to end the Iraq war.
What might our own response now be to the Holy Name 6? We ought to support them as they traverse the criminal justice system. Some may decide to enter into a plea agreement (if offered by the prosecution) which significantly reduces the potential for a prison sentence. Some may decide to pursue the case to trial with the risk of a five-year prison sentence. In either case, we should be fully supportive of each activist's decision.
More significantly and more substantively, however, we should reflect upon the challenge that their action presents to each of us, individually and collectively, to deepen our engagement in nonviolent civil resistance to end the Iraq war.
The action of the Holy Name 6 stands on its own. Whether we respond to the challenge is up to us.
Jeff Leys is Co-Coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. He served two years in prison, 1985 - 1987, for participation in a Plowshares-Disarmament action. He can be contacted via email, jeffleys@vcnv.org.
11 Comments so far
Show AllI've signed this petition in support of the Holy Name 6 and you should too:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1170/t/3151/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=984
To the Archdiocese of Chicago & the State's Attorney:
Three days into the sixth year of the occupation of Iraq, six young people challenged the continuation of business as usual at a time of war crimes during Easter Mass at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. This unjust occupation is illegal and criminal, and their call to stop it was correct and moral.
We stand with those who are being vilified and charged with felonies for dramatically staging a die-in while Cardinal George was delivering the homily.
Coming from a variety of religious and non-religious viewpoints, we urge the Archdiocese of Chicago and the State's Attorney to recognize right from wrong and to drop the charges against the Holy Name Six.
I no longer believe ...
I no longer believe it is possible for America to end the Iraq War.
I once believed it was, when we all thrilled to a Democartic majority in 2006 and the anticipation we held for the election of 2008.
The Major Vulcans were gone and only Rice and Cheyney remained.
The Downing Street Memo confirmed what many had believed.
The war was over, we thought, all that's left to do is wind it down.
But here we are now, knee-deep in internecine warfare on the Left, as symbolized by the warfare by and around the two Democratic candidates ... and the appalling rise of McCain.
And as much as I wanted to react otherwise, the conflict is having its effect on me.
I no longer believe.
I liked Edwards. Then I liked Clinton. Then I liked Obama. Now I have hope in none of them.
Not to solve the central crisis of our time - Iraq
I read CD and Huff Post and TruthDig and the NYT. Now I read CD only once in a while.
The election of 2006 WAS about Bush and Iraq.
The election of 2008 is about ... the election of 2008.
Worst of all, the candidates of both parties have started to morph into one another. As far as Iraq policy is concernd anyhow. McCain is now the most undesirable of the three, whereas once he was among the maddest and most unthinkable (along with RG).
Obama and Clinton followers focus on the candidates – ignoring one another and the fact that it is the people behind them that refuse to pull out.
And none have any real plans to end the war anyhow.
Not contain it. Not phase out of it. God help us not sustain it for 100 years. End it.
Someday it will end. It must.
As a veteran of the last "maddest war" I can tell you what it will be like the day we end the Iraq war.
We will negotiate a deal. We will call a cease fire. And we will stop killing.
Soldiers will return home. And trauma and dreams will follow them and us.
And whether or not all hell will break loose the next day will be entirey beyond our control.
But sooner or later that outbreak will stop. And the Iraqi people will find a way. And we will hope their "way" will be outside the grip of extremist Islam.
But I would further like to suggest what would happen if we decide to end the war on say, May 1st, 2008.
We will negotiate a deal. We will call a cease fire. And we will stop. Soldiers will return home. And trauma and dreams will follow them and us.
And whether or not all hell will break loose the next day will be entirey beyond our control.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO SCENARIOS WILL BE WHAT'S MEASURED IN DEAD AND WOUNDED (AND MONEY)
AMERICA CANNOT END THIS WAR.
Its politicians can't. Its population can't. At least no longer alone.
We have been sliced and diced and polled and profiled into a position of political impotence.
They know how to handle us.
We can only screech about Hillary, or freak about Obama, or dread McCain.
And our most accomplished political gesture seems to be the creation of disrespectful monikers for them all: Repugs, Dimocrats, McSwine, Billary, Obillama, whatever.
Throughout our efforts, Americans will continue getting loaded into body bags and Iraqis will continue getting wrapped in linen.
WE CANNOT END THIS WAR.
Not now. Not us. We need help. We need the power of a motivated generation all around the world.
We need to recreate the spirit of refusal to tolerate Iraq the way we once did Vietnam. And we need help from like minded spirits in Europe and Asia and South America and the Middle East and Russia and Africa and ... everywhere.
We needed a draft to take to the streets. They never did. They were driven not by fear but moral outrage.
We need a political movement that will take to the streets in every capitol, on every campus and in every factory and office that will say "Enough is Enough".
Because it is no longer our problem ... it is a problem that threatens the world.
But it is our fault. We elected him. We didn't impeach him. I wonder if we will really replace him. At least as far as Iraq is concerned.
Go to Wikpedia and download the tallies on total deaths in all categories (US, Iraqis, Contractors, etc.) Find the same info on the wounded and maimed. Calculate the cost. Compare it all to WW1 and WW2. Turn it into a spiffy little word document (I did)
Then send it to everyone you know, especially those living outside America and ask them to send it to everyone they know.
And add this:
1 trillion barrels of oil have been extracted to date.(source: Hess)
Another 2 trillion remain in the ground.
Do you really think this war will end on its own, or until they have a clear victory and a title to every last drop of it?
And you have figured out who "they" are, haven't you?
WE CANNOT DO THIS ALONE.
BUT WE MUST DO IT.
SO WE CAN BELIEVE AGAIN
You can donate to the Holy Name 6 defense fund here:
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and sign a e-petition to support the Holy Name 6 here:
[ http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Holy_Name_6/?e ]
You want to end the war in Iraq?
Ask why the USA is occupying that country: OIL. The invasion was initially named Operation Iraqi Liberation- O.I.L.
Stop driving so much, use less oil and most importantly, work to get the USA off oil energy.
It's hard to know what to say or think except where can I donate some money to help in their defense and to further their worthy goals.
lucky they were not designated "terrorists" and shipped off to parts unknown for a lifetime of torture.
U.S. Code of Federal Regulations: "...the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or PROPERTY to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives" (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85).
Next time you go to church, just pray you don't get the holy spirit so strongly that you get STIGMATA and bleed on their precious rugs....
1984 is truly here. Big Brother is in town, he and the Pigs from Animal Farm.
Protest is feared because it might get out of hand. An 80 year old man in a wheelchair arrested for wearing an anti-Iraq war T-shirt? WTF?
Before the rot really sets in, folks, you have some decisions to make. Live under tyranny or live free? Your choice.
www.dangerouscreation.com
Destroy an entire nation, cause thousands upon thousands of deaths, torture, maim the innocent, create a massive refugee problem, threaten to bomb another nation......and you get to keep your job and continue your evil ways.
Protest above calamity and spill some water-colored dye in the process......get up to 5 years in prison with a felony record.
I know this hypocrisy is pointed out over and over but I can't help repeating it.
As a liberal practicing Catholic who belongs to Catholics to End the War in Iraq and is blessed to live in San Francisco in a parish served by two anti-war priests, I can only say that I grow very tired of seeing the "seamless garment" of the pro-life ethic hamstrung by the issue of abortion. I guess maybe these status quo Catholics are reading a different Gospel and following a different crucified and risen Lord than I am. I'm sorry Cardinal George has to get his carpets cleaned...maybe he can do that after he gets the blood of thousands of slaughtered Iraquis off his hands. As a woman with a long history (forty years)of civil disobedience and protest, I applaud the actions of the Holy Name Six...that's what my church is SUPPOSED to be about.
Nothing like forgiveness huh?
Yes, the usa does place a higher value on property than on human lives. It's not alone in that regard, after all property can be fixed, or paid for. A human life can't be replaced, their value depends on if someone is willing to pay for it, or not.
So the church want's people to pay for getting slapped on the metaphorical cheek... So much for yet another of it's Lord's commandments... Not to suprising for a church that has such a strange view on how children who come unto them should suffer.