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ACNS 3123 - USA - 10 September 2002

The Presiding Bishop's statement on military action against Iraq

'A super power...must exercise the role of super servant'
6 September 2002

[ENS 2002-202] Our nation is now engaged in a debate about the wisdom of
military action designed to remove Saddam Hussein from power. The choices
made now will set in motion events that will reverberate around the world,
for good or ill. In this grave time I encourage President Bush to continue
to listen with an open mind to those who articulate very different positions
from his own, voices within our nation and from our allies and others around
the world.

The problem of Iraq admits no easy solution. However, through diplomatic and
multilateral initiatives, we can both serve our common interests and seek to
contain the national security threats posed by Saddam Hussein's rule of
Iraq. Our great nation now has the opportunity to express leadership in the
world by forging a foreign policy that seeks to reconcile and heal the
world's divisions.

I believe it is becoming ever more clear that this is the way to proceed,
rather than choosing a course that will immediately endanger the Iraqi
civilian population and our own United States Forces, that will alienate
many of our closest allies, and destabilize the Middle East. We will all be
better served to see our national energies and resources expended in
resolving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, such that Israel finds security
and peace with its neighbors and Palestinians achieve statehood.

Further, unilateral military action would surely inflame the passions of
millions, particularly in the Arab world, setting in motion cycles of
violence and retaliation. Such action would undermine our firm national
intent to eradicate global terrorism. As well, it would further strain
tenuous relationships that exist between the United States and other
nations.

The question for us now must be: what is our role in the community of
nations? I believe we have the capacity within us to help lead our world
into the way of justness and peace. The freedoms we enjoy as citizens of the
United States oblige us to attend not only to our own welfare, but to the
wellbeing of the world around us. A super power, especially one that
declares itself to be "under God," must exercise the role of super servant.
Our nation has an opportunity to reflect the values and ideals that we
espouse by focusing upon issues of poverty, disease and despair, not only
within our own nation but throughout the global community of which we are a
part.

The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church has called the Church to the
costly work of waging not war but reconciliation. This means addressing the
root causes of the anger toward the West and the United States in
particular, and building new understandings between Jews, Muslims, and
Christians - all of us the children of Abraham. The Church's governing
board, the Executive Council, also voted in June to "oppose unilateral
military action against Iraq," citing its October, 2001 resolution "to
promote the eradication of terrorism through justice and reconciliation
abroad."

The President and his Administration need our prayers as they seek ways to
address the challenges that face our troubled and fragile world. I pray that
compassion and reconciliation and healing may become the realities of our
common life, thereby reflecting God's own passionate desire for the life of
the world God sent his Son to save.

The Most Revd Frank T Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church, USA

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