Recently a group of folks from the Saratoga Peace Alliance went to Rep. Scott Murphy's office to express our displeasure (our horror actually) to the ongoing wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. We met with Rob Sholz, one of the congressman's staffers. Each of us gave our own statement based on our expertise. I gave a statement about the spirituality of war.
We also had someone from the Libertarian Party who presented some very impressive graphs and pie charts detailing the total costs of the wars and occupations, as well as historical facts about what has happened to countries who have gotten themselves into the same financial mess as the United States has with the same war and occupation costs – only we have the inflated military budgets to add to ours (we spend more than the next 46 highest spending countries combined). Not a pleasant picture by any stretch of the imagination; they pretty much collapsed.
What was also interesting was the realization that the Libertarians and peace people don't make such strange bedfellows after all.
Here is my statement to Rep. Murphy (via Rob Sholz):
War is antithetical to all that is holy. In order to win you have to be willing to out-brutalize the other side. You have to be willing to destroy more communities (homes, schools, hospitals) destroy more farmland, animals, food supplies and natural resources. You have to be willing to kill and savage more human beings; not just the traditional soldiers but the children, the disabled, the elders, the woman; any group that is vulnerable.
You have to be willing to spit on the face of creation; spit in the face of God. It is a spiritual death of the worst kind.
The great prophet Isiah tells us what the kingdom of God looks like: "...and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." We don't train for war and worship death and destruction.
Jesus tells us, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God" and warned the man who tried to defend him from capture in the garden at Gethsemane, "Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword."
The Bible also tells us that "the wages of sin is death." Unfortunately, it is not the simplistic notion of "because we're sinners we die" promulgated by most of the born-again Christians. We'd be better off if it was. It means when we engage in death-making we kill not only our neighbors and loved ones, we kill ourselves.
You can not stop doing evil fast enough. There is no time frame. It is now.
Who do we want to be as a nation? Do we want to be the children of God? Do we want to bring the kingdom of God to our planet, to each other?
The planet and lives we save will be our own.
I tend to be passionate about this as you can well imagine. I also spoke to a couple of comments made by my colleagues. I extemporaneously addressed the fact that Halliburton was given U.S. government no-bid and non-compete contracts and only 36 out of its 143 subsidiaries are incorporated in the United States. Some 107 subsidiaries are incorporated in 30 different countries, significantly lowering the company's tax liability. They are basically looting our treasury and our country. I also addressed the topic of the drone bombers. Someone can sit thousands of miles away and kill people and not feel any responsibility whatsoever. That disconnect of responsibility from action is the stuff of Nazi Germany, I said.
Rob's reply to my statements and comments was something about a Muslim saying to him that 10 percent of Muslims are crazy.
Someone later asked me how we were received. “I think the table got it,” I replied.
Here is the follow-up letter to Mr. Scholz from the SPA:
Dear Rob Scholz:
Thank you for meeting with the Saratoga Peace Alliance (+ 1) in your office yesterday. We are grateful to live in a society in which concerned citizens can voice their opinions to their peacefully elected representatives.
To summarize: We ask Rep. Murphy to co-sponsor HR 2404, calling for the Secretary of Defense to submit a report by 12/31/09 outlining an exit strategy for U.S. military forces in Afghanistan. The bill has 95 co-sponsors, eight from New York state.
Follow the advice of Col. Timothy Reese (Chief, Baghdad Operations Command Advisory Team) in his memo of July 31: Declare victory and go home. Col. Reese says the longer we stay, the greater the danger of violent incidents which will harm our long-term interests in the region. He gives evidence in support of this view. Memo available on request·
Support President Obama’s call for an end to the proliferation of nuclear weapons at the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York City; vote against funding for nuclear weapons and bunker busters.
Cease drone attacks which are killing innocent people in Afghanistan and Pakistan, creating enemies for our country. Create friends via diplomacy, such as that practiced by “Three Cups of Tea” author Greg Mortenson, who works with local communities building one school at a time in Afghanistan, empowering locals to be fully involved in making decisions.
Put the peoples’ interests ahead of corporate interests. We realize politicians need money to get elected and re-elected but we ask that you work toward diminishing the power of corporate lobbyists to determine our foreign policy.
Consider the spiritual consequences of war, to both perpetrator and victim.
Consider the costs of maintaining a global empire of over 700 military bases and being the military policeman of the world. We could easily afford universal health care if the U.S. were not spending 48% of the world’s total military spending. That is more than the next 46 highest spending countries of the world combined.
We hope that you will convey our concerns to Rep. Murphy and look forward to his response.
Peace,
Claire Cafaro for Saratoga Peace Alliance
To be honest I am not holding my breath for a response of any substance from Rep. Murphy.
