Anniversary of Iraq War

The following is from Ken Sehested, fellow traveler and peacemaker, who posted it in the listserv of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America.


Friends,

This past week's anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq made me remember the video I made after returning from Baghdad shortly before "shock and awe" commenced on 19 March 2003. With a friend's help, I've put the 7-minute video on YouTube. If you're interested, here's the weblink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTSVa9vFhS4

I escorted the last delegation of short-term volunteers with the Iraq Peace Team, co-sponsored by Voices in the Wilderness and Christian Peacemaker Teams. A dozen of my friends, including my roommate in Baghdad, remained in Iraq during the bombardment, holed up in a hotel basement, in order to be able to report on the invasion's aftermath. During this season of remembrance, don't forget that we've been at war with Iraq for more than 6 years. Remember the first "Gulf War," when on 16 January, the day after the commemoration of Dr. King's birth, the US began attacking Iraqi troops that had invaded Kuwait? By March it was over. But then the US and our British allies established "no-fly" zones in southern and northern Iraq. Combat bombing missions occurred virtually every day from then until the outbreak of 2003 invasion of Iraqi itself. (For 4 days in Dec. 1998 the entire country came under intense US and British bombing and cruise missile attacks.) In other words, the US has been launching combat missions in Iraq for 18 years.

Midway through this period between the declared wars a US-directed campaign of economic sanctions further decimated the country. Then-US Ambassador to the United Nations (later Secretary of State) Madeleine Albright responded to a question on the "60 Minutes" television show about a UN study documenting the deaths of 500,000 children as a direct result of the economic sanctions by saying: "Is it worth it? It's a high price, but we think it's worth it." -------------------------------------------------------------------


"Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures,
who sit securely, who say in your heart,
'I am, and there is no one beside me;
I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children'...
You felt secure in your wickedness; you said,
'No one sees me.'
Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray,
and you said in your heart,
'I am, and there is no one beside me."
--Isaiah 47:8, 10:

Speaking, ironically, of King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian superpower in the land now known as Iraq.