Conversation Point

In This Moment

A Time for Healing

Growing opposition to the war in Iraq increased this week as more violence erupted, including suicide bombings in several Western-branded Jordanian hotels which shocked the world, and less promise of the United States military as a stabilizing presence in the region became more and more evident. Even those in strongest support of President Bush's decision to use military force against Saddam Hussein have come to the conclusion that we must pull out of Iraq as soon as possible.

Representative John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania) has drawn us back to the most basic of reasons to reconsider our presence in Iraq. Murtha, known as one of the most hawkish members of Congress, voted for both Desert Storm and the use of military action in Iraq, and supported these endeavors with single-minded vigor. But, having also criticized the Bush administration in November 2004 for short-changing the troops on equipment and body armor, Murtha saw first hand on visits to recovering soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center what effects that one decision cost in human potential. Murtha stated simply that, "I see a kid blown apart, and it breaks my heart." John D. Conyers, democratic Representative from Maryland has said of Murtha's change of stance, "It's a turning point in the growing opposition to the war."

The criticism from the White House ranges from calling Murtha's comments a political move for future key committee positions should we elect a Democratic president in 2008, to this simply being bad timing as Iraq is trying to stabilize its government.

While the political front heats up here in the United States, and the Iraqi people battle to hold on to what hope they have left, there are several questions with which each country struggles, individually and as an uneasy team. What is the United States really spending its human and military resources on in this particular war away from home? Do the Iraqi people still want our help? What is the plan for the United States eventual withdrawal? These mutual questions must also be balanced against our need as a country to view ourselves as the world's benefactor, but simultaneously not tending to managing our own business here at home. If Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath taught us nothing else, it taught us that we control vast quantities of the world's resources, but we don't steward them very well at all, least of all our own people.

As Representatives Murtha and Conyers, as well as countless others, petition for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, they call for the United States, from the White House to each citizen of our country, to really think about what we are doing in yet another domestic conflict in another country. The atrocities perpetrated by Saddam Hussein have only to be presented in court. There is no dispute there. But the atrocities of the civil war in Rwanda are already documented, even turned into a critically-acclaimed movie, and we did nothing to stop them. It is likely that some people who knew at the time of this recent slaughter of millions cared, but were unable to act. It is equally likely our own government chose to ignore that with which it would not benefit us to intervene. We have given generously to other nations through the years in financial, material and human resources, but we have also chosen very clearly what battles we would fight for and with other nations.

This latest call for withdrawal of our troops has a human face, and calls for the United States to accept a new role, that of wounded healer. As people of faith, this idea of Jesus exemplifying the vulnerability and simultaneous strength in knowing human suffering and pain, is born of the faith that, as the third chapter of Ecclesiastes reminds us, there are times for each of many purposes under heaven, including birth, death, planting, reaping, killing and healing. It is time for us to decide what time it is for us. Healing would be a new challenge, something we are not yet equipped to handle. Having invested most of our short history in claiming what we believed was ours, we are at another turning point, another moment in history at which we can make different choices. There would be a cost, of course. We may be perceived differently by the world, by each other even. But, there is a season, a time and a purpose for everything under heaven. This is the time for peace, the beginning of healing.

Until next time, God's blessings.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 8:43 PM