wfn.org | "War," "Terrorism" and the Search for Peace

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Note #6850 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

18-September-2001
01332

"War," "Terrorism" and the Search for Peace

Reflections on a tragedy

by Vernon Broyles

Editor's note: The Rev. Vernon Broyles is associate director for social
justice and associate for corporate witness in the National Ministries
Division of the General Assembly Council. The Presbyterian News Service is
publishing this reflection on the Sept. 11 tragedy because Vernon's
responsibilities include theologically framing the national and social
issues of our day for the church. - Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - We should all be grateful for the acknowledgment by President
Bush that "we are at war," and profit from the comments of those who have
described the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as "another
Pearl Harbor."

	What is most important in those comments is not that we can now justify a
massive, sustained response against "terrorism," but that we have the chance
to understand that these acts have been viewed by the perpetrators all
along, not as acts of "terrorism," but as acts of "war." We have no chance
of responding successfully to our "enemies," whether our goal is vengeance,
or elimination, or peace, unless we understand them. Osama bin Laden, and
everyone of his ilk, whether they have come before him or will come after
him, have always seen themselves as being engaged in "war," not "terrorism."

	No "war" goes forward without an ideology behind it. Even a cursory look at
their rhetoric makes clear their hatred for those they perceive as the
"Christian West," whose values are forced on the world by an economic and
military hegemony. Moreover, we have seen numerous video clips that show
their training camps, which we describe as training grounds for
"terrorists," but they understand to be military installations for the
preparation of soldiers in their "war." In brief, although they may be more
widely dispersed than most traditional guerilla forces, they are nonetheless
part of a guerilla fighting force that uses the methods typical of every
guerilla army in history that is fighting against a force far superior to
their own.

	Further, while it may seem politically helpful to call them "barbaric" in
their acts against the "civilized" world, it is appropriate to ask why the
incineration of several thousand people in the attack on the World Trade
Center was a "barbaric act of terrorism," while the incineration of hundreds
of thousands of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are seen as a "necessary
act of war by a civilized nation."

	What is important here is that by declaring that we are "at war" with
"terrorism," President Bush has blurred the line between "war" and
"terrorism" in a very helpful way. The fact is that whenever a nation or
individual sets out to define "terrorism," it is always defined as violent
acts perpetrated by someone else. It does not include acts that may be
similar in their methodology or effects by the one offering the definition.
For, example, when the Israeli Defense Force occupying the West Bank and
Gaza bombs, strafes and rockets an apartment building, killing dozens of
innocent civilians, or assassinates a group of Palestinians by firing
rockets at their automobile, the Israeli government describes those as
"security actions." When a car bombing is perpetrated by Palestinians, with
similar loss of life, it becomes "an act of terrorism."

	One possible reason that the "terrorism" we have seen against the United
States at home and abroad has grown to the unspeakable level of September
11, 2001, is that we have ignored many people suffering injustice at the
hands of those we support. When they have reacted violently, we have simply
condemned their behavior as random acts of "terrorism," rather than
understanding that most of those acts represent a determination to redress
their grievances through the calculated actions of a guerilla force that
sees itself engaged in a "war" with us and our minions.

	It also may be that we have failed to be adequately self-critical of
negative impacts of our own policies and postures within the community of
nations. We seem genuinely hurt by the thought that there should be so much
ill feeling toward the U.S. around the world. Often it is a mix of jealous
admiration and dislike, but it is really there; and we dare not take the
wonderful, worldwide demonstrations of compassion and solidarity in the
aftermath of the 9/11/01 catastrophe as a signal that all that is past.

	We are still seen in many quarters as not only more powerful militarily and
economically than anyone else on the planet, but also possessing a
considerable degree of arrogance about it, which allows us to simply turn up
our noses at agreements sought by other nations and declare that we will go
our own way. It also has not gone unnoticed that our willingness to speak
fluently of "democracy" is often accompanied by our support for regimes
around the world that are paradigms of repression, because they are
"friends" who can serve as instruments of our "national interest" (cases in
point - Somoza, Pinochet, Mobutu and, yes, The Taliban).

	As Reformed Christians in the United States, it is urgent that we make our
voices heard at this time in our history. We must say to our leaders that we
are at "war," not with "terrorists" but with evil. It is manifest in our
selves, as well as others. In this real world in which we live, it will
always be necessary, on occasion, to use force in the restraint of evil.
That is the sense of Paul's description in Romans of the role of the "civil
magistrate" in exercising "the power of the sword." But having acknowledged
that, we must also reiterate the lessons of history, that there will never
be "a war to end all wars," not even a successful "war to stamp out
terrorism."

	As people of faith, we must continue to insist that the only real hope for
humanity is the path of peace - the biblical vision of shalom - which is
marked by "liberty and justice for all," not just for the powerful, not for
just a few select nations, not just for some in each society, but for all of
God's children.

	If God's Word is true, nothing less than shalom will do. But the way is far
more difficult than we would wish. And our hardest challenge along the road
to that kind of peace will be to believe so strongly that we ourselves are
forgiven through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are finally able
to forgive our enemies. As William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, said:
"The only way a Christian has of getting rid of his enemies is to love them
into being his friends." That may seem preposterous, ill-timed and
unrealistic. Nonetheless, it is the Word of the Lord.

	Thanks be to God.

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