End the war in Iraq, removing
our troops at a pace of 1 to 2 combat brigades per month;
Finally finish the fight
against the Taliban, root out al Qaeda and invest in the people of Afghanistan
and Pakistan, while making aid to the Pakistani government conditional;
Act aggressively to stop
nuclear proliferation and to secure all loose nuclear materials around
the world;
Double our foreign assistance
to cut extreme poverty in half;
Invest in a clean energy
future to wean the U.S. off of foreign oil and to lead the world against
the threat of global climate change;
Rebuild our military capability
by increasing the number of soldiers, marines, and special forces troops,
and insist on adequate training and time off between deployments;
Renew American diplomacy
by talking to our adversaries as well as our friends; increasing the
size of the Foreign Service and the Peace Corps; and creating an America's
Voice Corps.
5
year Iraqi humanitarian war
Iraqi
women mourn the death of their relative outside the morgue in the restive
city of Baquba, Iraq, on March 12.
Reports: 'Disastrous' Iraqi
humanitarian crisis
Amnesty International and The Red Cross released reports Monday
Amnesty report: "A climate of impunity has prevailed; the economy
is in tatters"
Amnesty says conditions for women have worsened with rise of religious
groups
Vice President Dick Cheney describes war as success with challenges
(CNN) -- As the war in Iraq reaches its five-year
anniversary this week, two of the world's leading humanitarian groups
issued extensive reports Monday describing a crisis of huge proportions
with little reason for hope.
"Despite claims that the security situation has improved
in recent months, the human rights situation is disastrous," Amnesty International
says in its report, titled "Carnage and Despair: Iraq Five Years On."
In a summary of the report, Amnesty writes that "a climate
of impunity has prevailed, the economy is in tatters and the refugee crisis"
keeps escalating.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, in a report
titled "Iraq: No Let-up in the Humanitarian Crisis," writes, "Despite
limited improvements in security in some areas, armed violence is still
having a disastrous impact. Civilians continue to be killed in the hostilities.
"The injured often do not receive adequate medical care.
Millions of people have been forced to rely on insufficient supplies of
poor-quality water as water and sewage systems suffer from a lack of maintenance
and a shortage of engineers."
The Bush administration and many Republican lawmakers, including
presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, have frequently praised successes
in Iraq in recent months, noting improvements in security in key areas.
They attribute that in part to the buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq ordered
by President Bush last year.
Vice
President Dick Cheney described the five year U.S.-led invasion of
Iraq in a news conference Monday during a visit to Baghdad.
"This week marks the fifth anniversary," said Cheney. "It
has been a difficult, challenging, but none the less successful endeavor."
Democrats, including presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton
and Barack Obama, have said the government failed to use the downturn
in violence to achieve the steps it was supposed to make possible.
Sen.
John McCain met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday
where he stressed the United States' commitment to Iraq. "We recognize
that al Qaeda is on the run, but they are not defeated. Al Qaeda continues
to pose a great threat to the security and very existence of Iraq as a
democracy. So we know there's still a lot more work that needs to be done,"
he said.
Amnesty
writes, "Key political benchmarks have yet to be realized."
Both Amnesty and the Red Cross slam the Iraqi government
for failing to grapple with the critical needs of their populations.
Amnesty also says the Iraqi government and the U.S.-led
Multi-National Forces are responsible for some nightmarish circumstances.
"Civilians are also at risk from Multi-National Forces and
Iraqi security forces, with many killed by excessive force and tens of
thousands detained without charge or trial," Amnesty writes in its summary.
"The death penalty was reintroduced in 2004 and hundreds of people have
been sentenced to death. At least 33 people were executed in 2007, many
after unfair trials."
In its report, Amnesty says the Iraqi government "has failed
to introduce practical measures to deal with the gross and serious human
rights violations perpetrated by its security forces. There appears to
be no serious willingness to investigate properly the many incidents of
abuses, including killings of civilians, torture and rape, and to bring
those responsible to justice.
"The government has also been unable to reign in Shiite
militia groups, such as the Mehdi Army, or to rid the Interior Ministry
of death squads. The fact that the government is divided along sectarian
lines has serious repercussions on its effectiveness and bodes ill for
the future."
The two reports cite a litany of concerns, including severe
widespread poverty, a lack of food and water, and broken families left
to scrounge for whatever they can find to get by. Both reports describe
a situation that shows no sign of clear improvement.
Amnesty also says conditions for women have worsened with
the rise of fundamentalist religious groups. Many women "have been forced
to wear Islamic dress or targeted for abduction, rape or killing." The
group notes a study by the World
Health Organization in 2006/2007 that found 21 percent of Iraqi women
had experienced physical violence.
Amnesty adds that the "predominantly Kurdish region of northern
Iraq has been more stable with fewer acts of violence, and has seen growing
economic prosperity and foreign investment. However, here too there continue
to be serious human rights violations, including arrests for peaceful
political dissent, torture, ill-treatment, the death penalty and the killing
of women in so-called honor crimes."
The Red Cross says that despite the struggles in Iraq, the
organization "has been able to help hundreds of thousands of the neediest
Iraqis." The group called for a "renewed effort" to "address the needs
of everyday Iraqis."
A Call to Lament and Repent: Guide Our Feet to the
Path of Peace
“By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high
will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and
in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
—Luke 1:78-79 (NRSV)
This season of Lent, we are truly living “ in darkness and
in the shadow of death” as we mark, on March 19, 2008, the
fifth anniversary of the war with Iraq. It is a war that is
being waged by our country, financed by our taxes, and fought by
our sisters and brothers. As U.S. Christians, we issue a call to
the American church to lament and repent of the sin of this war.
We lament the suffering and violence in Iraq
. We mourn the nearly 4,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands
of Iraqis who have died, the unknown numbers of both who are wounded
in body and mind, and the more than 4 million Iraqis who are displaced
from their homes. With the families of U.S. soldiers torn apart,
our families are also torn apart.
We lament the effects of this war on our country.
The war has undermined our religious and national values. International
perceptions of the U.S. church’s support for the war have
hurt the cause of Christ. The abuse of prisoners and use of torture
have damaged the U.S.’s moral standing in the world. The war
is squandering billions of dollars that are urgently needed for
other domestic and international needs.
We repent of our failure to fully live the teaching of
Jesus to be peacemakers. Some
of us believe our faith leads to a rejection of war, while others
affirm just war principles—but after five years of conflict,
we are convinced that continuing occupation and war in Iraq cannot
be reconciled with just war teaching, and it is the obligation of
Christians to help bring unjust wars to an end. The U.S. occupation
must end; a transition to an international solution to Iraq must
be found. A peaceful resolution is possible and must be pursued.
Our country should end this war, not try to “win” it,
and we must help the Iraqi people build a safer and more peaceful
country.
We believe repentance means more than just being sorry.
Repentance requires a change of heart and a commitment to a new
direction. Repentance means transformation—breaking out of
our conformity to a foreign policy based on fear and war to a policy
that is rooted in seeking justice and pursuing peace. There is a
better way—and the U.S. church must take the lead.
We dedicate ourselves to the biblical vision
of a world in which nations do not attempt to resolve international
problems by waging war on other nations . We believe the followers
of the Prince of Peace should be the hardest ones, not the easiest,
to convince to go to war. We are not utopians—we acknowledge
that human beings and nations will have conflicts. But given the
toll that the habit of war has taken in our violence-torn world,
we must begin to learn to resolve our inevitable conflicts by learning
the arts and skills of conflict resolution and a new international
approach to just peace-making and law enforcement. We must seek
a world in which we allow our Lord “ to guide our feet into
the path of peace."
As a sign of repentance and commitment to lead our nation
toward a new path, I pledge to:
● Pray for our nation to learn lasting lessons from th e
tragedy of the war in Iraq and commit to greater wisdom in the future.
● Help heal our nation by talking and listening to our fellow
Christians, finding better ways to resolve conflicts—by seeking
the reconciliation of our divisions and working together for a more
peaceful world.
● Reach out to the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
who often, after making terrible sacrifices, feel abandoned.
● Urge our elected representatives to:
pursue a foreign policy consistent with moral principles, wise
political judgments, and international law
ensure that veterans and their families are provided with the
medical, psychological, financial, and spiritual support they
need
fulfill our responsibility, working with the international
community, to stabilize and rebuild Iraq, provide humanitarian
support, and resettle those displaced by war.
Repentance requires a change of direction and a new commitment
to follow Jesus, who tells us very clearly, “Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”
