From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org
Church Leaders Call For Alternatives to Military Attack on Iraq
From
PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org
Date
01 Mar 1998 16:13:11
18-February-1998
98058
Church Leaders Call For Alternatives
to Military Attack on Iraq
by Alexa Smith
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--Conceding that there are no easy answers in the standoff
between the Clinton administration and the Iraqi government over weapons
inspections, worldwide ecumenical leaders are continuing to push for
patient diplomacy instead of military intervention.
In statements issued within days of each other, a nine-member World
Council of Churches (WCC) delegation to Iraq, the National Council of
Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. (NCC), the International Policy Committee
of United States Catholic Conference (USCC) and the Cyprus-based Middle
East Council of Churches (MECC) insist that humanitarian - not military -
options need to dominate decision-making in the U.S., to take what the NCC
calls the moral "high ground," even though the Clinton administration is
now readying for possible airstrikes against Iraq.
The statements also agreed on the need to reshape the economic
sanctions applied by the United Nations during the Persian Gulf War - a
source of ecclesiastical guilt ever since the mainline denominations argued
for the imposition of sanctions seven years ago as a way of avoiding the
war. Since then, sanctions have been credited with stopping needed
rebuilding to Iraq's almost inoperable infrastructure, wrecked by
airstrikes during the war, and with contributing to massive malnutrition,
disease and, by conservative estimates, the deaths of more than one million
Iraqis, half of them children.
Only the MECC calls for outright lifting of the sanctions, though the
WCC delegation called for a "thorough review" of the sanctions based on the
WCC's 1995 policy guidelines on the application of sanctions.
At press time, the delegation was reporting to the WCC's Executive
Committee in Geneva. The delegation was expressing alarm at the
"worsening" of suffering among ordinary Iraqis in recent months that has,
it argues, "galvanized the population against foreign intervention" and has
"significantly reduced" the witness of the Christian community there, many
of whom are emigrating to avoid further economic hardship.
In a four-page letter to Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, the
chairman of the USCC International Policy Committee, Archbishop Theodore E.
McCarrick of Newark, argues that major military action now runs the risk of
violating the church's traditional criteria for "justifiable use of force,"
what is commonly called just war theory. He wrote: "Means short of war
must be found to contain and overcome the Iraqi regime's threat to its own
people and to the world.
"We fear that the use of military force in this case could pose an
undue risk to an already suffering civilian population, could well be
disproportionate to the ends sought, and could fail to resolve legitimate
concerns about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction."
The NCC argument is based more on the moral ambiguity of using force
as a way of meeting intransigence - particularly in a complex situation
where quick solutions are often "morally suspect and historically
dangerous."
In a Feb. 16 letter to President Bill Clinton, the NCC's officers said:
" ... The choice of muscle is the suspect equivalent of belligerence,
always morally ambiguous. Embracing such a choice is a special temptation
reserved for strong men and women who see themselves pursuing a course that
is right. Even our earlier military action failed to end repressive
government in Iraq or stop the potential for belligerence.
"Our counsel: resist. The lure of military muscle is sometimes a false
attraction."
The letter goes on to point out that, though there are strong pacifist
traditions within the NCC's member communions, the NCC is not, overall, a
pacifist body. "Historically many of our churches have affirmed the
defensive use of military power and even its deterrent value in a sinful
world.
"We have however never supported its `first strike' use. We cannot,"
the letter continues, "support it now."
The hardships faced by Iraqi civilians is behind religious leader'
opposition to military action - the same reason why churches are beginning
to push for reshaping sanctions, something the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)
General Assembly called for in 1996. "The people of Iraq have suffered
right, left and sideways," said the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the
denomination's stated clerk, who wrote his own appeal to President Clinton
urging "restraint in both the use and threat of military force" in Iraq
Jan. 30. "We acknowledge," he told reporters, "the responsibility [to
investigate] amassing weapons in Iraq ...
"But do it through the United Nations. And keep in mind the suffering
of the people of Iraq."
The 1996 PC(USA) document asks the U.N. Security Council to consider
lifting the embargo on all but military-related goods, and the
denomination's 1997 human rights report urges "continued easing" of
economic sanctions against Iraq in a way that does not support Iraq's
ability to invade its neighbors.
According to NCC Middle East liaison David Weaver, more churches are
becoming increasingly vocal that massive use of force is not the way out of
the current impasse - just as they are questioning the wisdom of continuing
to punish ordinary Iraqis for their government's actions with tight
sanctions. The American Friends Service Committee, for instance, is making
more than 1,000 "Friendship Kits" for Iraqis. The Church of the Brethern
is urging U.S. restraint. The United Methodist Church is arguing that
there is "no moral" rationale for "inflicting further injury on any who
hurt as the Iraqi people presently do."
The NCC goes even one step further, proposing that U.S. policy shift
toward "an aggressive humanitarian embrace" of the Iraqi people - a
strategy that would draw Iraq out of its isolation and would undercut the
"demonizing portrayal" of the U.S. by the Iraqi government, a portrayal
military action would only confirm.
"We're not just trying get out of the diplomatic impasse," Weaver told
the Presbyterian News Service. "But we're trying to suggest creative
alternatives ... the economic sanctions have had a catastrophic impact on
the Iraqi people who are unable to affect the outcome."
McCarrick bluntly stated the Roman Catholic Church's position on
further airstrikes and on strict adherence to the U.N. sanctions in his
letter to the Secretary of State. Acknowledging that the government of
Iraq has "done little to alleviate the suffering of its own people and has
even exacerbated it;" McCarrick continued, "It is wrong to punish the Iraqi
people for actions of a government they cannot control ...
"According to the reports of our brother bishops and other reliable
sources, adequate food, clean water and health care are lacking for
hundreds of thousands of people. To contribute significantly, though
indirectly, to their hunger and disease is unconscionable, no matter how
egregious the actions of their leaders," he wrote. "We cannot fail to heed
their cries for help."
Both the USCC and the NCC are urging national leaders to shift the
terms of the embargo so food, clean water and health care may be provided
for the Iraqi people.
The MECC's statement puts it this way: "The sanctions that were imposed
to coerce the Iraqi government to comply with the cease-fire agreement
have, in seven years, done nothing to change Iraqi policy or mobilize the
people to change the government. In fact, the opposite effect can be
noticed: a greater nationalistic feeling and sense that the West
(particularly the U.S. and the United Kingdom) are unjustly punishing Iraq.
Malnutrition, previously unseen diseases, a marked lack of medicine and
food supplies, the unavailability of spare parts to repair cars,
ambulances, water sanitation plants, and other necessary machinery, and a
general feeling of hopelessness prevail among the general population.
"The MECC," it says, "calls upon the international community to lift
the economic sanctions against Iraq."
------------
For more information contact Presbyterian News Service
phone 502-569-5504 fax 502-569-8073
E-mail PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org Web page: http://www.pcusa.org
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