Heaven Help Us All
On September 11, 2002, I sat in an Episcopal Church in the museum district of Richmond, Virginia. While I’m Episcopalian it wasn’t my regular place of worship, but I came to honor those who had perished in the tragedy which had occurred one year before. At the time, the Bush administration had begun promoting the idea that we desperately needed to invade Iraq, but I simply didn’t want to think about that as I sat in the peaceful cocoon of the church that evening. I wanted to remember those who had been lost, not realizing that the groundwork was being laid for even more lives to be lost than were lost on that sad day. I remember being annoyed that the priest used her homily in part as a discourse against the waging of a new war in the Middle East. She didn’t mention the president, or his administration, or even the particular issues being discussed in the media about Iraq, but what she said in general theological (not political) terms caused me unease. I just wanted to pray for the dead, and didn’t want to be troubled by the voice in my head that told me to relate what she was saying to the day’s issues. So that night I tuned out the voice in my head. I was eventually troubled, deeply troubled by the waging of this war, and I’ve spent the last couple of years trying to do something about my troubled feelings, or at least taking actions availble to an ordinary citizen who doesn’t have a lot of political power. But as I sit here today I wish I’d been troubled that night instead of wanting to push my misgivings to the back of my mind to preserve a moment of calm reflection.
I don’t know if I will watch the President’s speech tonight. I don’t know if I can. (I suppose once again I’m tryng to avoid the disturbing feelings which it will evoke). I once heard Senator Jim Webb say in a campaign speech that it is foolish to try to destroy a hornet’s nest by sitting down on it. It’s likely that tonight our commander in chief will order our troops to remain seated, and it’s pretty certain that he intends to send more keepers into the country to try to tame the hornets.
I don’t know what I’ll do tonight, but today I’m going to let myself feel disturbed. It doesn’t feel good, or comforting, or peaceful, but I’m going to feel upset and troubled. And not knowing what else I can do about the situation, I think I’ll drive downtown to the pretty church I last attended in 2002 and see if they will let me in to say some prayers. That’s all I can think of to do at the moment.
by aprilacain on January 10, 2007
April, thank you for your thoughts. It is important that we reflect and think about where we are and where we are going based on the choices we make. I, too, feel deeply troubled and saddened about where our country is today, and I would not miss this Presidential address for anything. I don’t feel that I should ignore the situation, avoid the pain, or pretend it is not real without real, long-term consequences. We have a democratic duty to engage. I was very strongly against the invasion of Iraq, because I think preemptive strike is bad policy, period. I was part of the vote that put new leades in place and want change. However, we have invaded, we have bombed the hell out of that country, we have demolished the horrible, but functioning, leadership that the country had. Are we better off? I don’t think so. However, I must be one of the lonely 12% of the population that supports a surge in troops. Now that we are there, I think we have a moral obligation to help that country reconstruct and create a somewhat stable environment. If we leave now or within the forseeable future, massive genocide will occur and there will be a zero chance of a democracy occuring. We will leave that region in the throes of a civil war that benefits Iran, Syria and the like. We will eventually pay the consequences of that down the road in further terrorist acts and, most likely, future wars. Morally and politically, I don’ like that we are there. However, I will be even more disgusted with this country and our actions if we choose to leave for political reasons. WE are the MAJOR contributor to Iraq’s instability and our actions have resulted in tens of thousands of Iraqi lives being lost. I don’t think God values an American life more than he values an Iraqi life. However, I believe Americans collectively do value them differently. I think we are obligated to help restore stability and rebuild the educational, economic, and societal systems that we have destroyed. That comes at an ugly cost. We know a stay-the-course strategy will fail. We know withdrawing will result in defeat and with horrendous loss of life in Iraq. A surge in troops with a committment to do the right thing and invest in infrastructure is our best hope and the moral thing to do. Heaven help us have the courage to do the right thing, no matter how troubling it may be.
I missed Senator Webb’s reply to the speech, but hope to get the Youtube version today. With Bush, it was more of the same. This is really about him deflecting responsibility for his scewups.