For postings since March 1, 2003, click here.

For earlier stories:

Of Gods and Mortals and Empire  [2-25-03]

William Rivers Pitt has recently reminded us that the real issue in American's planned war on Iraq is not terrorism. It's not even oil. It is the assertion of America power over the rest of the world. It is, in short, Empire.

It reflects the work of the Project for the New American Century, or PNAC, a Washington-based think tank created in 1997. Its primary goal, says Pitt, is "he establishment of a global American empire to bend the will of all nations."

And another view:

A national teach-in on the war on Iraq  
February 24-28

[2-22-03]

Can Saddam be disarmed without war? What role can nonviolence play in bringing justice and democracy to the region? What are the real reasons for the rush to war? Will war lessen - or increase - the threat of terrorism in this country? Are there alternatives to war?

Across the country, students will explore the complex issues surrounding the planned war on Iraq and engage in a dialogue about creative, nonviolent alternatives to war.

The Win Without War coalition is encouraging people to send a steady stream of phone calls, e-mails and faxes to all U.S. Senators on February 26^th, to make clear the breadth and depth of opposition to the war.

More local reports from participants in actions in Raleigh, NC, and Louisville, KY.

By the thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, people around the world marched and sang and shouted to say No to Pres. Bush's planned war on Iraq.

Here are a few brief reports from Witherspooners on events in Nashville, Santa Fe, and Minneapolis.  We invite you to add your own reports and reflections!

Support the Feb 15-16 Demonstrations in New York, San Francisco and around the world

[posted 2-14-03]

Go. This may be the last chance to make our views known about the war and it may even prevent it. If war does start, it is critical that concerned patriotic citizens be allowed to exercise their democratic rights and not be silenced. Whether you go or not, contact your acquaintances, particularly those close to New York and San Francisco and urge them to go. Consult http://www.unitedforpeace.org/ for information about this weekend's worldwide demonstrations and for ideas on other actions you can take.

Protect our democracy: war with Iraq will only endanger it.

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman predicted that if there is one more terror attack in the US on the scale of the 9-11 it could be the end of the United States as an "open" society. The demand to "do something" will be unstoppable. A frightening solution to do just that has been developed by the US Department of Justice, leaked and disclosed on Bill Moyers' TV show, aired on February 8th. http://www.pbs.org/now/

This draft legislation, dubbed Patriot II, dismantles all the safeguards of a liberal democracy, introducing secret arrest, deportation of legal aliens, and revocation of U.S citizenship. This might initially apply to Arab-Americans and Muslims but could be easily extended to all Americans who disagree with the government's policies.

The stakes are very high. If we attack Iraq, we open ourselves to more attacks by dedicated fanatical groups, both here and abroad, with no end in sight. Aside from being an unjust and unwise war, the attack and the consequent occupation of Iraq could lead to a range of events at home and abroad that few of us would wish to contemplate.

This statement has come to us from Ken Nakayama, Harvard University, and Nancy Kanwisher, MIT    http://www.noIraqAttack.org/

Wendell Berry - poet, essayist, novelist and farmer - will be a special guest at the Witherspoon Society Conference in Louisville on Saturday morning, March 8.

Here's a glimpse of his latest -- and very moving -- thoughts on the current American crisis.

Wendell Berry has written before about the significance of 9/11 and the dangers of the current administration's way of responding to it. He has now published a more extensive essay entitled "A Citizen's Response to the National Security Strategy of the United States of America."

An abridged version of the essay was published in the New York Times on February 9, 2003. The complete version is available on the website of Orion Press. It's worth reading!

Because Mr. Berry will be joining us for the Witherspoon Society Conference on March in Louisville, his publisher has generously agreed to let us reprint the sort version of his essay in the materials we are preparing for the conference. So if you're there, you'd have a great opportunity to hear and talk with Wendell Betty, and also to take home a copy of his essay.

Just to give you a taste, here's how he begins the full version of the essay:

THE NEW NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY published by the White House in September 2002, if carried out, would amount to a radical revision of the political character of our nation. Its central and most significant statement is this:

While the United States will constantly strive to enlist the support of the international community, we will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self defense by acting preemptively against such terrorists... (p. 6)

A democratic citizen must deal here first of all with the question, Who is this "we"? It is not the "we" of the Declaration of Independence, which referred to a small group of signatories bound by the conviction that "governments [derive] their just powers from the consent of the governed." And it is not the "we" of the Constitution, which refers to "the people [my emphasis] of the United States."

This "we" of the new strategy can refer only to the president. It is a royal "we". A head of state, preparing to act alone in starting a preemptive war, will need to justify his intention by secret information, and will need to plan in secret and execute his plan without forewarning. ...

Berry goes on to reflect on the President's moralistic approach to the preemptive war:

MUCH OF THE OBSCURITY of our effort so far against terrorism originates in this now official idea that the enemy is evil and that we are (therefore) good, which is the precise mirror image of the official idea of the terrorists.

The epigraph of Part III of The National Security Strategy contains this sentence from President Bush's speech at the National Cathedral on September 14, 2001: "But our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil." A government, committing its nation to rid the world of evil, is assuming necessarily that it and its nation are good.

But the proposition that anything so multiple and large as a nation can be "good" is an insult to common sense. It is also dangerous, because it precludes any attempt at self criticism or self correction; it precludes public dialogue.

He concludes:

We can no longer afford to confuse peaceability with passivity. Authentic peace is no more passive than war. Like war, it calls for discipline and intelligence and strength of character, though it calls also for higher principles and aims. If we are serious about peace, then we must work for it as ardently, seriously, continuously, carefully, and bravely as we now prepare for war.

Kentucky farmer Wendell Berry is the author of more than thirty books including, most recently, In the Presence of Fear: Three Essays for a Changed World.

Presbyterian News Service recently published a good overview of some of those actions.  The Witherspoon Society is happy to note the our recent open letter to the President is quoted at some length in this story.

We have reported a number of them in recent days.  And here are two more:

Yellowstone Presbytery adopts a resolution against the war.

Following the State of the Union Address a number of observers have been raising concerns about the moral and/or religious rhetoric streaming from nation's leaders, particularly the President. Since this is obviously a theological concern, and a problem to which the Hebrew prophets frequently called attention, you might want to look at some of these comments.

We'll list just a couple here now, and try to add more later. And if you have seen helpful material (or can offer thoughts of your own!!) please just send us a note.

Piety and patriotism

The Rev. Charles P. Henderson, a Presbyterian minister, notes that Pres. Bush, speaking at the memorial service for the seven astronauts of the space shuttle Columbia, appealed to both the piety and the patriotism of the audience in a way that made American progress - whether in space or in the conquest of Iraq, a matter of divine determination. Saying that "this is not a war we choose," the President seems to assume that our lives (and his actions as the leader of the United States) are not within his control - or responsibility.

Rhetoric of evil

Aristophanes' comedy Lysistrata tells how Athenian women, fed up with the Peloponnesian War, barricaded themselves on the Acropolis and withheld marital relations until their husbands voted for peace with Sparta. The name of the title heroine means "release from war."

The Lysistrata Project ( www.lysistrataproject.org ) is encouraging live stage readings of the play on 03/03/03. Readings are already scheduled in nearly every state and 15 countries.

It was the idea of two New York actresses, Kathryn Blume and Sharron Bower. They launched a web site and the project snowballed into an international cultural event for peace.

NEW YORK -- January 31, 2003 -- Citing the "utmost urgency" of their request, 46 U.S. religious leaders who have been working "to slow the rush to war" with Iraq today petitioned President George W. Bush for a face-to-face meeting.

Sunday's New York Times (February 2, 2003) had a good mainstream column against the war. The Rev. Bruce Gillette recommends it for reading and sharing

Entitled "Keeping Saddam Hussein in a Box," it is authored by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt.

The United States faces a clear choice on Iraq: containment or preventive war. President Bush insists that containment has failed and we must prepare for war. In fact, war is not necessary. Containment has worked in the past and can work in the future, even when dealing with Saddam Hussein.

The case for preventive war rests on the claim that Mr. Hussein is a reckless expansionist bent on dominating the Middle East. Indeed, he is often compared to Adolf Hitler, modern history's exemplar of serial aggression. The facts, however, tell a different story....

John J. Mearsheimer is professor of political science at the University of Chicago. Stephen M. Walt is academic dean of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Gillette adds:  "Read the whole article and email it to others ... then write Congress and your local newspapers."

"An Unnecessary War" is a longer version by the same authors.

For postings since March 1, 2003, click here.

For earlier stories: