New Quaker Notebook

What's "Hell no, we won't go!" in Arabic? In what may be the first case of Iraqi soldiers refusing to attend US-led training for fear of reprisals by their countrymen, Reuters reported today that a 90-member Iraqi defense force in Rutba was disbanded after refusing to go to Baghdad for US military training. Their weapons, uniforms, and identification tags were taken away. The matter had apparently been brewing for a couple of months. The US demanded that the Iraqi army unit, called the Defence Force of Rutba, take part in the training. Said one member of the unit: "They told us we had no right to refuse, they said the duty of soldiers was to obey orders, but we said 'We are Iraqis, not Americans, we don't follow orders from Americans'." At issue was the possible perception among the Sunni tribes in the region that the Iraqi troops were in cahoots with US forces. "We did not want the locals to think that we were working with the Americans and then threaten us," he said.[1]

If this sort of "conscientious objection" should ever catch on in Iraq, the country's national security is going to be left entirely to the US military and what's left of a multinational coalition—and that's surely going to present a major problem for American war hawks. They won't send their children to war and recruiters can't get enough fresh volunteers to replace the reserve and National Guard units currently deployed (and redeployed) in the Middle East.[2] The result is going to have to be more outsourcing to mercenaries, such as Blackwater USA, or the return of a national conscription into military service à la Vietnam. Wait a minute ... Vietnam ... peace with honor ... I remember that war. We won that, didn't we?

1. Reuters, Khaleej Times Online, June 4, 2005.
2. See, e.g., New York Times, May 3, 2005, on the difficulties US military recruiters are facing in enlisting new volunteers; the news article is archived at Common Dreams News Center.

Memorial Days of the future. It is significant that with almost poetic precision the very first paragraph of the Bush administration's National Security Strategy of the United States of America declares the administration's agenda for a "New American Century":

"The great struggles of the twentieth century between liberty and totalitarianism ended with a decisive victory for the forces of freedom—and a single sustainable model for national success: freedom, democracy, and free enterprise. In the twenty-first century, only nations that share a commitment to protecting basic human rights and guaranteeing political and economic freedom will be able to unleash the potential of their people and assure their future prosperity. People everywhere want to be able to speak freely; choose who will govern them; worship as they please; educate their children—male and female; own property; and enjoy the benefits of their labor. These values of freedom are right and true for every person, in every society—and the duty of protecting these values against their enemies is the common calling of freedom-loving people across the globe and across the ages."[1]

As I read this document, released by the White House in 2002, it sets out clearly the Bushevik plan for preventive war by attacking with lethal force any country they perceive to be a potential military threat, therefore enabling the US to mold other nations in the American image by, one, freeing the citizens from their existing government, two, creating at least a show of the election process, and, three, bringing in US-based corporations to create an image of "free enterprise" in the country. Afghanistan and Iraq have become test sites for the "New American Century."[2]

At the start of his ministry Jesus was led into the desert region of the lower Jordan Valley and there fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, after which he was tempted by Satan three times—tempting him first as a human being, then tempting him spiritually as a test of his faith.[Matt 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13] In the third temptation, in what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls his "complete temptation,"[3] Satan presented to Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world" and offered them all to him:

'And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours."'[4]

In rejecting the offer Jesus does not dispute that the powers of the state are within Satan's control; his response is instead:

'"Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"'[5]

On this Memorial Day, as we remember fallen Americans and patriots who died in the preservation of this outstanding nation, let us also not succumb to the belief that this is a memorial of the future, or that it should be an honor to die for evil aims. We ought not to dishonor our patriots—any more than we ought to dishonor our martyrs—by allowing the American system to be transformed completely into a depravity of messianic militarism and zealous greed. I call upon all Christians to stand down from this and like administrations and to recognize in them the handiwork of those rulers, authorities, and powers of this dark world against whom we struggle.[6]

1. Introduction, National Security Strategy of the United States of America (2002). The document is also available from the White House as a PDF file.
2. For more information about the genesis of the New American Century, go to the project's website. "The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle."
3. Bonhoeffer, Versuchung (1953).
4. Luke 4:6-7.
5. Matthew 4:10; Luke 4:8.
6. See Ephesians 6:12.